;-NRLF 


B    M    IDS    SbS 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

CERF  LIBRARY 

PRESENTED  BY 

REBECCA  CERF  '02 

IN  THE  NAMES  OF 

CHARLOTTE  CERF  '95 

MARCEL  E.  CERF  '97 

BARRY  CERF  '02 


AN  EMERSON  CALENDAR 


j 


AN  EMERSON 


CALENDAR 


EDITED  BY 


HUNTINGTON  SMITH 


NEW  YORK 


THOMAS  Y.  CROWELL  &  CO. 


PUBLISHERS 


COPYRIGHT,    1905,   BY  THOMAS  Y.   CROWELL  &  COMPANY 


D.   B.   UPDIKE,  THE  MERRYMOUNT  PRESS,   BOSTON 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

IN  these  days,  when  there  is  so  much  talk  about 
the  simple  life,  it  is  perhaps  well  to  go  back  to 
the  writings  of  the  New  England  philosopher 
from  whom  all  the  later  writers  on  the  subject  have 
direCtly  or  indirectly  derived  their  inspiration,  and  in 
quire  of  him  at  first  hand  just  what  the  simple  life  and 
its  requirements  really  are. 

One  has  not  to  read  far  in  the  essays  and  poems  of 
Emerson  to  understand  that  as  he  saw  it  the  simple 
life  was  not  governed  by  a  definite  formula,  or  a  series 
of  rules  about  personal  expenses,  diet,  and  "  the  return 
to  nature," — whatever  that  may  mean.  To  Emerson 
the  simple  life  is  the  life  in  the  spirit ;  it  expresses  an 
attitude  of  mind;  it  is  a  tendency,  and  not  a  fixed  con 
dition.  To  put  oneself  in  harmony  with  the  supreme 
laws  of  the  universe,  which  are  the  laws  of  righteous 
ness  ;  to  respeCt  one's  own  individuality  and  the  indi 
viduality  of  others;  to  be  receptive  before  one  is  ex 
pressive;  to  have  faith  in  the  eternal  and  to  look  for 
perfection,  but  not  to  be  impatient  if  it  come  not  at 
one's  bidding ;  to  keep  an  open  mind,  unyielding 
courage,  unvarying  tolerance,  and  immutable  loyalty 
to  high  ideals ;  to  make  friendship  a  religion,  and  love 
a  sacrament,  —  these  are  the  essentials  of  Emerson's 
doCtrine ;  and  they  who  have  once  known  them  in 
their  fulness  may  well  look  askance  at  the  suggestions 
of  less  inspired  disciples. 

The  opportunity  of  preparing  an  Emerson  Calendar 
[v] 

M566987 


devolved  upon  me  quite  unexpectedly,  but  the  calen 
dar,  such  as  it  is,  represents  the  results  of  much  careful 
and  persistent  reading.  It  would  hardly  be  possible, 
however,  even  in  the  course  of  three  hundred  and 
sixty-six  short  quotations,  to  give  anything  like  an 
adequate  outline  of  Emerson's  teachings.  The  most 
one  can  hope  for  is  that  these  selections  may  help  to 
a  clearer  perception  of  life  and  its  obligations,  and  to 
a  greater  reverence,  admiration  and  love  for  a  writer 
whose  utterances  lose  nothing  of  their  significance 
with  the  lapse  of  time.  Surely,  a  little  of  his  wisdom 
and  poise  are  needed  in  an  age  when  the  stir  and 
glitter  of  ever  changing  surfaces  so  distraclingly  ob 
scure  the  movement  of  the  great  forces  that  make  for 
serenity,  steadfastness  and  joy. 

H.  S. 


Dorchester^  Massachusetts 
April  19,  1905 


JANUARY 

JANUARY  FIRST 

HIGHER  than  the  question  of  our  dura 
tion  is  the  question  of  our  deserving.  Im 
mortality  will  come  to  such  as  are  fit  for 
it,  and  he  who  would  be  a  great  soul  in  future,  must 

be  a  great  soul  now. 

WORSHIP 

JANUARY  SECOND 

Love  wakes  anew  this  throbbing  heart, 

And  we  are  never  old. 

Over  the  winter  glaciers, 

I  see  the  summer  glow, 

And  through  the  wild-piled  snowdrift 

The  warm  rose  buds  below. 

THE  WORLD-SOUL 

JANUARY  THIRD 

It  is  easy  in  the  world  to  live  after  the  world's 
opinion  ;  it  is  easy  in  solitude  to  live  after  our  own  ; 
but  the  great  man  is  he  who  in  the  midst  of  the 
crowd  keeps  with  perfect  sweetness  the  indepen 
dence  of  solitude. 

SELF-RELIANCE 


JANUARY  FOURTH 

If  we  live  truly,  we  shall  see  truly.  It  is  as  easy  for 
the  strong  man  to  be  strong,  as  it  is  for  the  weak 
to  be  weak.  When  we  have  new  perception,  we 
shall  gladly  disburthen  the  memory  of  its  hoarded 
treasures  as  old  rubbish.  When  a  man  lives  with 
God,  his  voice  shall  be  as  sweet  as  the  murmur  of 
the  brook  and  the  rustle  of  the  corn. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

JANUARY  FIFTH 

All  power  is  of  one  kind,  a  sharing  of  the  nature 
of  the  world.  The  mind  that  is  parallel  with  the 
laws  of  nature  will  be  in  the  current  of  events,  and 
strong  with  their  strength.  POWER 

JANUARY  SIXTH 

The  word  unto  the  prophets  spoken 
Was  wrk  on  tables  yet  unbroken  ; 
The  word  by  seers  or  sibyls  told 
In  groves  of  oak,  or  fanes  of  gold, 
Still  floats  upon  the  morning  wind, 
Still  whispers  to  the  willing  mind. 
One  accent  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
The  heedless  world  hath  never  lost. 

THE  PROBLEM 

JANUARY  SEVENTH 

Trust  men  and  they  will  be  true  to  you  ;  treat  them 
greatly  and  they  will  show  themselves  great,  though 
they  make  an  exception  in  your  favor  to  all  their 
rules  of  trade.  PRUDENCE 


JANUARY  EIGHTH 

Could  we  not  deal  with  a  few  persons,  —  with  one 
person, — after  the  unwritten  statutes,  and  make 
an  experiment  of  their  efficacy  ?  Could  we  not  pay 
our  friend  the  compliment  of  truth,  of  silence,  of 
forbearing  ?  Need  we  be  so  eager  to  seek  him  ?  If 
we  are  related,  we  shall  meet, 

CHARACTER 

JANUARY  NINTH 

Life  is  a  series  of  surprises,  and  would  not  be  worth 
taking  or  keeping,  if  it  were  not.  God  delights  to 
isolate  us  every  day,  and  hide  from  us  the  past  and 
the  future. 

EXPERIENCE 

JANUARY  TENTH 

If  you  have  not  slept,  or  if  you  have  slept,  or  if  you 
have  headache,  or  sciatica,  or  leprosy,  or  thunder 
stroke,  I  beseech  you,  by  all  angels,  to  hold  your 
peace,  and  not  pollute  the  morning  ...  by  cor 
ruption  and  groans.  Come  out  of  the  azure.  Love 
the  day.  Do  not  leave  the  sky  out  of  your  landscape. 

BEHAVIOR 

JANUARY  ELEVENTH 

Every  man  takes  care  that  his  neighbor  shall  not 
cheat  him.  But  a  day  comes  when  he  begins  to 
care  that  he  do  not  cheat  his  neighbor.  Then  all 
goes  well.  He  has  changed  his  market-cart  into  a 
chariot  of  the  sun. 

WORSHIP 
[3] 


JANUARY  TWELFTH 

Life  is  too  short  to  waste 

The  critic  bite  or  cynic  bark, 

Quarrel,  or  reprimand ; 

'T  will  soon  be  dark ; 

Up !  mind  thine  own  aim,  and 

God  speed  the  mark.  T0  ;  w 

JANUARY  THIRTEENTH 

That  only  which  we  have  within,  can  we  see  with 
out.  If  we  meet  no  gods,  it  is  because  we  harbor 
none.  If  there  is  grandeur  in  you,  you  will  find 
grandeur  in  porters  and  sweeps.  He  only  is  rightly 
immortal,  to  whom  all  things  are  immortal. 

WORSHIP 

JANUARY  FOURTEENTH 

We  have  no  pleasure  in  thinking  of  a  benevolence 
that  is  only  measured  by  its  works.  Love  is  inex 
haustible,  and  if  its  estate  is  wasted,  its  granary  emp 
tied,  still  cheers  and  enriches,  and  the  man,  though 
he  sleep,  seems  to  purify  the  air,  and  his  house  to 
adorn  the  landscape  and  strengthen  the  laws. 

CHARACTER 

JANUARY  FIFTEENTH 

No  sane  man  at  last  distrusts  himself.  His  existence 
is  a  perfect  answer  to  all  sentimental  cavils.  If  he  is, 
he  is  wanted,  and  has  the  precise  properties  that  are 
required.  That  we  are  here,  is  proof  we  ought  to  be 

Cre*  CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

[4] 


JANUARY  SIXTEENTH 

The  spirit  of  the  world,  the  great  calm  presence  of 
the  creator,  comes  not  forth  to  the  sorceries  of  opium 
or  of  wine.  The  sublime  vision  comes  to  the  pure 
and  simple  soul  in  a  clean  and  chaste  body. 

THE  POET 

JANUARY  SEVENTEENTH 

The  right  use  of  Fate  is  to  bring  up  our  conducl:  to 
the  loftiness  of  nature.  Rude  and  invincible  except 
by  themselves  are  the  elements.  So  let  man  be.  Let 
him  .  .  .  show  his  lordship  by  manners  and  deeds 

on  the  scale  of  nature. 

FATE 

JANUARY  EIGHTEENTH 

Go  where  he  will,  the  wise  man  is  at  home, 
His  hearth  the  earth;  —  his  hall  the  azure  dome; 
Where  his  clear  spirit  leads  him,  there  's  his  road5 
By  God's  own  light  illumined  and  foreshowed. 

WOOD  NOTES 

JANUARY  NINETEENTH 

The  genius  of  life  is  friendly  to  the  noble,  and  in 
the  dark  brings  them  friends  from  far.  Fear  God, 
and  where  you  go,  men  shall  think  they  walk  in 

hallowed  cathedrals. 

WORSHIP 


[5] 


JANUARY  TWENTIETH 

For  practical  success,  there  must  not  be  too  much 
design.  A  man  will  not  be  observed  in  doing  that 
which  he  can  do  best.  There  is  a  certain  magic 
about  his  properest  adtion,  which  stupefies  your 
powers  of  observation,  so  that  though  it  is  done  be 
fore  you,  you  wist  not  of  it. 

EXPERIENCE 

JANUARY  TWENTY-FIRST 

You  would  compliment  a  coxcomb  doing  a  good 
aft,  but  you  would  not  praise  an  angel.  The  silence 
that  accepts  merit  as  the  most  natural  thing  in  the 
world  is  the  highest  applause.  Such  souls,  when 
they  appear,  are  the  Imperial  Guard  of  Virtue,  the 
perpetual  reserve,  the  dictators  of  fortune.  One 
needs  not  praise  their  courage,  —  they  are  the  heart 
and  soul  of  nature. 

AN  ADDRESS 

JANUARY  TWENTY-SECOND 

The  fate  of  the  poor  shepherd,  who,  blinded  and 
lost  in  the  snow-storm,  perishes  in  a  drift  within  a 
few  feet  of  his  cottage  door,  is  an  emblem  of  the 
state  of  man.  On  the  brink  of  the  waters  of  life  and 
truth,  we  are  miserably  dying. 

THE  POET 


[6] 


JANUARY  TWENTY-THIRD 

What  boots  it,  thy  virtue, 

What  profit  thy  parts, 

While  one  thing  thou  lackest, 

The  art  of  all  arts  ! 

The  only  credentials, 

Passport  to  success, 

Opens  castle  and  parlor, — 

Address,  man,  Address.  TACT 

JANUARY  TWENTY-FOURTH 

Every  great  and  commanding  moment  in  the  annals 
of  the  world  is  the  triumph  of  some  enthusiasm. 

MAN  THE   REFORMER 

JANUARY  TWENTY-FIFTH 

All  that  is  clearly  due  to-day  is  not  to  lie.  In  other 
places,  other  men  have  encountered  sharp  trials,  and 
have  behaved  themselves  well.  The  martyrs  were 
sawn  asunder,  or  hung  alive  on  meat-hooks.  Can 
not  we  screw  our  courage  to  patience  and  truth, 
and  without  complaint,  or  even  with  good-humor, 
await  our  turn  of  action  in  the  Infinite  Counsels  ? 

THE  TRANSCENDENTALIST 

JANUARY  TWENTY-SIXTH 

Heaven  is  large,  and  affords  space  for  all  modes  of 
love  and  fortitude.  Why  should  we  be  busy-bodies 
and  superserviceable  ?  Action  and  inaction  are  alike 
to  the  true.  One  piece  of  the  tree  is  cut  for  a  wea 
thercock  and  one  for  the  sleeper  of  a  bridge ;  the 
virtue  of  the  wood  is  apparent  in  both. 

r          -I  SPIRITUAL   LAWS 


JANUARY  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

All  things  are  known  to  the  soul.  It  is  not  to  be 
surprised  by  any  communication.  Nothing  can  be 
greater  than  it.  Let  those  fear  and  fawn  who  will. 
The  soul  is  in  her  native  realm,  and  it  is  wider  than 
space,  older  than  time,  wide  as  hope,  rich  as  love. 
Pusillanimity  and  fear  she  refuses  with  a  beautiful 
scorn :  they  are  not  for  her  who  putteth  on  her 
coronation  robes,  and  goes  out  through  universal 
love  to  universal  power. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

JANUARY  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Every  natural  action  is  graceful.  Every  heroic  a£t 
is  also  decent,  and  causes  the  place  and  the  by 
standers  to  shine.  We  are  taught  by  great  adlions 
that  the  universe  is  the  property  of  every  individual 
in  it.  Every  rational  creature  has  all  Nature  for  his 
dowry  and  estate.  It  is  his,  if  he  will. 

BEAUTY 

JANUARY  TWENTY-NINTH 

Nor  scour  the  seas,  nor  sift  mankind, 

A  poet  or  a  friend  to  find ; 

Behold,  he  watches  at  the  door, 

Behold  his  shadow  on  the  floor.  SAADI 

JANUARY  THIRTIETH 

The  true  thrift  is  always  to  spend  on  the  higher 
plane ;  to  invest  and  invest,  with  keener  avarice, 
that  he  may  spend  in  spiritual  creation,  and  not  in 
augmenting  animal  existence. 

WEALTH 

[8] 


JANUARY  THIRTY-FIRST 

The  wise  man  is  the  State.  He  needs  no  army,  fort, 
or  navy, — he  loves  men  too  well;  no  bribe,  or  feast, 
or  palace,  to  draw  friends  to  him;  no  vantage 

ground,  no  favorable  circumstance.  He  needs  no 

i 
library,  for  he  has  not  done  thinking ;  no  church,   / 

for  he  is  a  prophet ;  no  statute  book,  for  he  is  the  i 
law-giver ;  no  money,  for  he  is  value ;  no  road,  for  I 
he  is  at  home  where  he  is ;  no  experience,  for  the  I 
life  of  the  creator  shoots  through  him  and  looks! 
from  his  eyes. 


POLITICS 


[9] 


FEBRUARY 


FEBRUARY  FIRST 

IN  youth  we  are  mad  for  persons.  Childhood  and 
youth  see  all  the  world  in  them.  But  the  larger 
experience  of  man  discovers  the  identical  nature 
appearing  through  them  all.  Persons  themselves  ac 
quaint  us  with  the  impersonal. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

FEBRUARY  SECOND 

Pictures  must  not  be  too  picturesque.  Nothing 
astonishes  men  so  much  as  common  sense  and  plain 
dealing.  All  great  actions  have  been  simple,  and  all 

great  pictures  are. 

ART 

FEBRUARY  THIRD 

Some  men  are  born  to  own,  and  can  animate  all 
their  possessions.  Others  cannot :  their  owning  is 
not  graceful ;  seems  to  be  a  compromise  of  their 
character  :  they  seem  to  steal  their  own  dividends. 
They  should  own  who  can  administer. 

WEALTH 


FEBRUARY  FOURTH 

The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome, 

And  groined  the  aisles  of  Christian  Rome, 

Wrought  in  a  sad  sincerity, 

Himself  from  God  he  could  not  free ; 

He  builded  better  than  he  knew, 

The  conscious  stone  to  beauty  grew. 

THE  PROBLEM 

FEBRUARY  FIFTH 

In  the  last  analysis,  love  is  only  the  reflection  of  a 
man's  own  worthiness  from  other  men.  Men  have 
sometimes  exchanged  names  with  their  friends,  as 
if  they  would  signify  that  in  their  friend  each  loved 
his  own  soul. 

FRIENDSHIP 

FEBRUARY  SIXTH 

Most  of  life  seems  to  be  mere  advertisement  of  fa 
culty  :  information  is  given  us  not  to  sell  ourselves 
too  cheap  ;  that  we  are  very  great.  So,  in  particulars, 
our  greatness  is  always  in  a  tendency  or  direction, 
not  in  an  action. 

EXPERIENCE 

FEBRUARY  SEVENTH 

The  key  to  every  man  is  his  thought.  Sturdy  and 
defying  though  he  look,  he  has  a  helm  which  he 
obeys,  which  is  the  idea  after  which  all  his  facts  are 
classified.  He  can  only  be  reformed  by  showing  him 

a  new  idea  which  commands  his  own. 

CIRCLES 


FEBRUARY  EIGHTH 

We  like  to  come  to  a  height  of  land  and  see  the 
landscape,  just  as  we  value  a  general  remark  in  con 
versation.  But  it  is  not  the  intention  of  nature  that 
we  should  live  by  general  views.  We  fetch  fire  and 
water,  run  about  all  day  among  the  shops  and 
markets,  and  get  our  clothes  and  shoes  made  and 
mended,  and  are  the  vidtims  of  these  details,  and 
once  in  a  fortnight  we  arrive  perhaps  at  a  rational 
moment.  If  we  were  not  thus  infatuated,  if  we  saw 
the  real  from  hour  to  hour,  we  should  not  be  here 
to  write  and  to  read,  but  should  have  been  burned 
or  frozen  long  ago. 

NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST 

FEBRUARY  NINTH 

The  face  which  character  wears  to  me  is  self-suffi- 
cingness.  I  revere  the  person  who  is  riches ;  so  that 
I  cannot  think  of  him  as  alone,  or  poor,  or  exiled,  or 
unhappy,  or  a  client,  but  as  perpetual  patron,  bene- 
fadtor,  and  beatified  man.  Character  is  centrality, 
the  impossibility  of  being  displaced  or  overset. 

CHARACTER 

FEBRUARY  TENTH 

I  am  thankful  for  small  mercies.  I  compared  notes 
with  one  of  my  friends  who  expe6ls  everything  of 
the  universe,  and  is  disappointed  when  any  thing  is 
less  than  the  best,  and  I  found  that  I  begin  at  the 
other  extreme,  expelling  nothing,  and  am  always 
full  of  thanks  for  moderate  goods. 

EXPERIENCE 

[  IJ] 


FEBRUARY  ELEVENTH 

I  care  not  how  you  are  drest, 

In  the  coarsest,  or  in  the  best, 

Nor  whether  your  name  is  base  or  brave, 

Nor  for  the  fashion  of  your  behavior, — 

But  whether  you  charm  me, 

Bid  my  bread  feed,  and  my  fire  warm  me, 

And  dress  up  nature  in  your  favor. 


FATE 


FEBRUARY  TWELFTH 

If  the  disparities  of  talent  and  position  vanish  when 
the  individuals  are  seen  in  the  duration  which  is 
necessary  to  complete  the  career  of  each,  even  more 
swiftly  the  seeming  injustice  disappears  when  we 
ascend  to  the  central  identity  of  all  the  individuals, 
and  know  that  they  are  made  of  the  substance 
which  ordaineth  and  doeth. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

FEBRUARY  THIRTEENTH 

The  soul  looketh  steadily  forwards,  creating  a  world 
alway  before  her,  leaving  worlds  alway  behind  her. 
She  has  no  dates,  nor  rites,  nor  persons,  nor  spe 
cialties,  nor  men.  The  soul  knows  only  the  soul  j 
all  else  is  idle  weeds  for  her  wearing. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 


FEBRUARY  FOURTEENTH 

The  permanent  interest  of  every  man  is,  never  to  be 
in  a  false  position,  but  to  have  the  weight  of  Na 
ture  to  back  him  in  all  that  he  does.  Riches  and 
poverty  are  a  thick  or  thin  costume  ;  and  our  life  — 

the  life  of  all  of  us  —  identical. 

ILLUSIONS 

FEBRUARY  FIFTEENTH 

I  could  better  eat  with  one  who  did  not  respect  the 
truth  or  the  laws,  than  with  a  sloven  and  unpre 
sentable  person.  Moral  qualities  rule  the  world,  but 
at  short  distances,  the  senses  are  despotic. 

MANNERS 

FEBRUARY  SIXTEENTH 

In  good  health,  the  air  is  a  cordial  of  incredible  vir 
tue.  Crossing  a  bare  common,  in  snow  puddles,  at 
twilight,  under  a  clouded  sky,  without  having  in 
my  thoughts  any  occurrence  of  special  good  fortune, 
I  have  enjoyed  a  perfect  exhilaration.  I  am  glad  to 
the  brink  of  fear. 

NATURE 

FEBRUARY  SEVENTEENTH 

If  you  choose  to  plant  yourself  on  the  side  of  Fate, 
and  say,  Fate  is  all ;  then  we  say,  a  part  of  Fate  is 
the  freedom  of  man. 

FATE 

FEBRUARY  EIGHTEENTH 

'T  is  not  within  the  force  of  Fate 
The  fate-conjoined  to  separate. 

r  -i  THRENODY 


FEBRUARY  NINETEENTH 

What  is  best  in  each  kind  is  an  index  of  what  should 
be  the  average  of  that  thing.  Love  shows  me  the 
opulence  of  nature,  by  disclosing  to  me  in  my  friend 
a  hidden  wealth,  and  I  infer  an  equal  depth  of  good 
in  every  other  direction. 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST 

FEBRUARY  TWENTIETH 

Dreadful  limits  are  set  in  nature  to  the  powers  of 
dissimulation.  Truth  tyrannizes  over  the  unwilling 
members  of  the  body.  Faces  never  lie,  it  is  said.  No 
man  need  be  deceived  who  will  study  the  changes 
of  expression. 

SPIRITUAL   LAWS 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-FIRST 

We  believe  in  ourselves,  as  we  do  not  believe  in 
others.  We  permit  all  things  to  ourselves,  and  that 
which  we  call  sin  in  others,  is  experiment  for  us. 

EXPERIENCE 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-SECOND 

Why  should  I  keep  holiday, 
When  other  men  have  none  ? 
Why  but  because  when  these  are  gay, 
I  sit  and  mourn  alone. 

COMPENSATION 


[  16] 


FEBRUARY  TWENTY-THIRD 

Nature  is  tugging  at  every  contract  to  make  the 
terms  of  it  fair.  If  you  are  proposing  only  your  own, 
the  other  party  must  deal  a  little  hardly  by  you.  If 
you  deal  generously,  the  other,  though  selfish  and 
unjust,  will  make  an  exception  in  your  favor,  and 
deal  truly  with  you.  When  I  asked  an  iron-master 
about  the  slag  and  cinder  in  railroad  iron,  —  "O," 
he  said,  "there's  always  good  iron  to  be  had:  if 
there 's  cinder  in  the  iron,  't  is  because  there  was 
cinder  in  the  pay." 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-FOURTH 

There  is  no  beautifier  of  complexion,  or  form,  or 
behavior,  like  the  wish  to  scatter  joy  and  not  pain 
around  us.  'T  is  good  to  give  a  stranger  a  meal,  or 
a  night's  lodging.  'T  is  better  to  be  hospitable  to  his 
good  meaning  and  thought,  and  give  courage  to  a 
companion.  We  must  be  as  courteous  to  a  man  as 
we  are  to  a  picture,  which  we  are  willing  to  give 
the  advantage  of  a  good  light. 

BEHAVIOR 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-FIFTH 

Be  lord  of  a  day,  through  wisdom  and  justice,  and 
you  can  put  up  your  history  books. 

LITERARY  ETHICS 


[   -7] 


FEBRUARY  TWENTY-SIXTH 

The  stronger  the  nature,  the  more  it  is  reactive. 
Let  us  have  the  quality  pure.  A  little  genius  let  us 
leave  alone.  A  main  difference  betwixt  men,  is  whe 
ther  they  attend  their  own  affair  or  not.  Man  is  that 
noble  endogenous  plant  which  grows,  like  the  palm, 
from  within  outward. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Wilt  thou  not  ope  this  heart  to  know 

What  rainbows  teach  and  sunsets  show, 

Verdicl:  which  accumulates 

From  lengthened  scroll  of  human  fates, 

Voice  of  earth  to  earth  returned, 

Prayers  of  heart  that  inly  burned  ; 

Saying,  what  is  excellent. 

As  God  lives ,  is  permanent. 

Hearts  are  dust,  hearts*  loves  remain. 

Heart's  love  will  meet  thee  again. 

THRENODY 

FEBRUARY  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

We  boast  our  emancipation  from  many  supersti 
tions  ;  but  if  we  have  broken  any  idols,  it  is  through 
a  transfer  of  the  idolatry.  What  have  I  gained,  that 
I  no  longer  immolate  a  bull  to  Jove,  or  to  Nep 
tune,  or  a  mouse  to  Hecate  ;  that  I  do  not  tremble 
before  the  Eumenides,  or  the  Catholic  Purgatory, 
or  the  Calvinistic  Judgment-day,  —  if  I  quake  at 
opinion,  the  public  opinion,  as  we  call  it ;  or  at  the 
[  '8] 


threat  of  assault,  or  contumely,  or  bad  neighbors, 
or  poverty,  or  mutilation,  or  at  the  rumor  of  revo 
lution,  or  murder  ?  If  I  quake,  what  matters  it  what 
I  quake  at  ? 


CHARACTER 


FEBRUARY  TWENTY-NINTH 

By  right  or  wrong, 

Lands  and  goods  go  to  the  strong; 

Property  will  brutely  draw 

Still  to  the  proprietor, 

Silver  to  silver  creep  and  wind, 

And  kind  to  kind, 

Nor  less  the  eternal  poles 

Of  tendency  distribute  souls. 


CELESTIAL   LOVE 


MARCH 


MARCH  FIRST 

EVERY  man's  nature  is  a  sufficient  advertise 
ment  to  him  of  the  character  of  his  fellows. 
My  right  and  my  wrong,  is  their  right  and  their 
wrong.  Whilst  I  do  what  is  fit  for  me,  and  abstain 
from  what  is  unfit,  my  neighbor  and  I  shall  often 
agree  in  our  means,  and  work  together  for  a  time  to 

one  end. 

POLITICS 

MARCH  SECOND 

We  are  such  lovers  of  self-reliance,  that  we  excuse 
in  a  man  many  sins,  if  he  will  show  us  a  complete 
satisfaction  in  his  position,  which  asks  no  leave  to 
be,  of  mine,  or  any  man's  good  opinion. 

MANNERS 

MARCH  THIRD 

Each  man  has  his  own  vocation.  The  talent  is  the 
call.  There  is  one  direction  in  which  all  space  is 
open  to  him.  He  has  faculties  silently  inviting  him 
thither  to  endless  exertion.  He  is  like  a  ship  in  a 
river ;  he  runs  against  obstructions  on  every  side  but 
one ;  on  that  side  all  obstruction  is  taken  away  and 
he  sweeps  serenely  over  God's  depths  into  an  infi 
nite  sea. 

r  -t  SPIRITUAL   LAWS 


MARCH  FOURTH 

Every  solid  in  the  universe  is  ready  to  become  fluid 
on  the  approach  of  the  mind,  and  the  power  to  flux 
it  is  the  measure  of  the  mind.  If  the  wall  remain 
adamant,  it  accuses  the  want  of  thought. 

FATE 

MARCH  FIFTH 

Every  child  that  is  born  must  have  a  just  chance  for 
his  bread.  Let  the  amelioration  in  our  laws  of  pro 
perty  proceed  from  the  concession  of  the  rich,  not 
from  the  grasping  of  the  poor.  Let  us  begin  by  ha 
bitual  imparting. 

MAN  THE   REFORMER 

MARCH  SIXTH 

What  a  man  does,  that  he  has.  What  has  he  to  do 
with  hope  or  fear  ?  In  himself  is  his  might.  Let  him 
regard  no  good  as  solid  but  that  which  is  in  his  na 
ture  and  which  must  grow  out  of  him  as  long  as  he 
exists. 

SPIRITUAL   LAWS 

MARCH  SEVENTH 

Eterne  alternation 
Now  follows,  now  flies, 
And  under  pain,  pleasure, 
Under  pleasure,  pain  lies. 
Love  works  at  the  centre, 
Heart-heaving  alway ; 
Forth  speed  the  strong  pulses 
To  the  borders  of  day. 

THE  SPHYNX 

["1 


MARCH  EIGHTH 

I  suffer,  every  day,  from  the  want  of  perception  of 
.beauty  in  people.  They  do  not  know  the  charm 
with  which  all  moments  and  objects  can  be  embel 
lished,  the  charm  of  manners,  of  self-command,  of 
benevolence.  Repose  and  cheerfulness  are  the  badge 
of  the  gentleman,  —  repose  in  energy. 

CULTURE 

MARCH  NINTH 

That  spirit  which  suffices  quiet  hearts,  which  seems 
to  come  forth  to  such  from  every  dry  knoll  of  sere 
grass,  from  every  pine-stump,  and  half-imbedded 
stone,  on  which  the  dull  March  sun  shines,  comes 
forth  to  the  poor  and  hungry,  and  such  as  are  of 
simple  taste. 

THE  POET 

MARCH  TENTH 

A  man's  fortunes  are  the  fruit  of  his  character.  A 
man's  friends  are  his  magnetisms. 

FATE 

MARCH  ELEVENTH 

As  the  wave  breaks  to  foam  on  shelves, 
Then  runs  into  a  wave  again, 
So  lovers  melt  their  sundered  selves, 
Yet  melted  would  be  twain. 

INITIAL   LOVE 


MARCH  TWELFTH 

A  belief  in  causality,  or  stri6l  connexion  between 
every  trifle  and  the  principle  of  being,  and,  in  con 
sequence,  belief  in  compensation,  or,  that  nothing  is 
got  for  nothing,  —  characterizes  all  valuable  minds, 
and  must  control  every  effort  that  is  made  by  an 
industrious  one. 

POWER 

MARCH  THIRTEENTH 

Discontent  is  the  want  of  self-reliance:  it  is  infirm 
ity  of  will.  Regret  calamities  if  you  can  thereby  help 
the  sufferer;  if  not,  attend  your  own  work  and  al 
ready  the  evil  begins  to  be  repaired. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

MARCH  FOURTEENTH 

Hospitality  must  be  for  service  and  not  for  show, 
or  it  pulls  down  the  host.  The  brave  soul  rates  itself 
too  high  to  value  itself  by  the  splendor  of  its  table 
and  draperies.  It  gives  what  it  hath,  and  all  it  hath, 
but  its  own  majesty  can  lend  a  better  grace  to  ban 
nocks  and  fair  water  than  belong  to  city  feasts. 

HEROISM 

MARCH  FIFTEENTH 

The  sexton  tolling  the  bell  at  noon, 

Dreams  not  that  great  Napoleon 

Stops  his  horse,  and  lists  with  delight, 

Whilst  his  files  sweep  round  yon  Alpine  height ; 

Nor  knowest  thou  what  argument 


Thy  life  to  thy  neighbor's  creed  has  lent: 
All  are  needed  by  each  one, 
Nothing  is  fair  or  good  alone. 

EACH  AND  ALL 

MARCH  SIXTEENTH 

Whenever  you  are  sincerely  pleased,  you  are  nour 
ished.  The  joy  of  the  spirit  indicates  its  strength. 
All  healthy  things  are  sweet-tempered.  Genius 
works  in  sport,  and  goodness  smiles  to  the  last;  and, 
for  the  reason,  that  whoever  sees  the  law  which  dis 
tributes  things,  does  not  despond,  but  is  animated 
to  great  desires  and  endeavors. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

MARCH  SEVENTEENTH 

Better  be  a  nettle  in  the  side  of  your  friend  than 
his  echo.  The  condition  which  high  friendship  de 
mands  is  ability  to  do  without  it.  To  be  capable 
that  high  office  requires  great  and  sublime  parts. 
There  must  be  very  two,  before  there  can  be  very 
one. 

FRIENDSHIP 

MARCH  EIGHTEENTH 

If  there  be  power  in  good  intention,  in  fidelity,  and 
in  toil,  the  north  wind  shall  be  purer,  the  stars  in 
heaven  shall  glow  with  a  kindlier  beam,  that  I  have 
lived.  I  am  primarily  engaged  to  myself  to  be  a  pub 
lic  servant  of  all  the  gods,  to  demonstrate  to  all  men 
that  there  is  intelligence  and  good  will  at  the  heart 
of  things,  and  ever  higher  and  yet  higher  leadings. 

THE  CONSERVATIVE 


MARCH  NINETEENTH 

A  man  was  born  not  for  prosperity,  but  to  suffer 
for  the  benefit  of  others,  like  the  noble  rock-maple 
which  all  around  our  villages  bleeds  for  the  service 
of  man. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

MARCH  TWENTIETH 

As  soon  as  beauty  is  sought,  not  from  religion  and 
love  but  for  pleasure,  it  degrades  the  seeker.  High 
beauty  is  no  longer  attainable  by  him  in  canvas  or 
in  stone,  in  sound,  or  in  lyrical  construction ;  an 
effeminate,  prudent,  sickly  beauty,  which  is  not 
beauty,  is  all  that  can  be  formed;  for  the  hand  can 
never  execute  any  thing  higher  than  the  character 
can  inspire. 

ART 

MARCH  TWENTY-FIRST 

The  politics  are  base, 
The  letters  do  not  cheer, 
And  't  is  far  in  the  deeps  of  history  — 
The  voice  that  speaketh  clear. 
Trade  and  the  streets  ensnare  us, 
Our  bodies  are  weak  and  worn, 
We  plot  and  corrupt  each  other, 
And  we  despoil  the  unborn. 

THE  WORLD-SOUL 

MARCH  TWENTY-SECOND 

Life  is  a  series  of  surprises.  We  do  not  guess  to-day 
the  mood,  the  pleasure,  the  power  of  to-morrow, 

26 


when  we  are  building  up  our  being.  Of  lower  states, 
— of  acts  of  routine  and  sense,  we  can  tell  some 
what,  but  the  masterpieces  of  God,  the  total  growths 
and  universal  movements  of  the  soul,  he  hideth  ; 

they  are  incalculable, 

CIRCLES 

MARCH  TWENTY-THIRD 

The  simplest  utterances  are  worthiest  to  be  writ 
ten,  yet  are  they  so  cheap  and  so  things  of  course, 
that  in  the  infinite  riches  of  the  soul  it  is  like  ga 
thering  a  few  pebbles  off  the  ground,  or  bottling  a 
little  air  in  a  phial,  when  the  whole  earth  and  the 
whole  atmosphere  are  ours. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

MARCH  TWENTY-FOURTH 

Those  who  live  to  the  future,  must  always  appear 
selfish  to  those  who  live  to  the  present. 

CHARACTER 

MARCH  TWENTY-FIFTH 

One  way  is  right  to  go :  the  hero  sees  it,  and  moves 
on  that  aim,  and  has  the  world  under  him  for  root 
and  support.  He  is  to  others  as  the  world.  His  ap 
probation  is  honor ;  his  dissent,  infamy. 

FATE 

MARCH  TWENTY-SIXTH 

It  is  only  necessary  to  ask  a  few  questions  as  to  the 
progress  of  the  articles  of  commerce  from  the  fields 

t»7'l 


where  they  grew,  to  our  houses,  to  become  aware 
that  we  eat  and  drink  and  wear  perjury  and  fraud 
in  a  hundred  commodities. 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

MARCH  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Nature  never  spares  the  opium  or  nepenthe ;  but, 
wherever  she  mars  her  creature  with  some  deform 
ity  or  defedl,  lays  her  poppies  plentifully  on  the 
bruise,  and  the  sufferer  goes  joyfully  through  life, 
ignorant  of  the  ruin,  and  incapable  of  seeing  it, 
though  all  the  world  point  their  finger  at  it  every 
day. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

MARCH  TWENTY-EIGHTH 
Pure  by  impure  is  not  seen. 
For  there  's  no  sequestered  grot, 
Lone  mountain  tarn,  or  isle  forgot, 
But  justice  journeying  in  the  sphere 
Daily  stoops  to  harbor  there. 

ASTRJEA 

MARCH  TWENTY-NINTH 

The  virtues  are  economists,  but  some  of  the  vices 
are  also.  Thus,  next  to  humility,  I  have  noticed  that 
pride  is  a  pretty  good  husband.  A  good  pride  is,  as 
I  reckon  it,  worth  from  five  hundred  to  fifteen  hun 
dred  a  year. 

WEALTH 

MARCH  THIRTIETH 

Do  not  craze  yourself  with  thinking,  but  go  about 
your  business  anywhere.  Life  is  not  intellectual  or 
[s8] 


critical,  but  sturdy.  Its  chief  good  is  for  well-mixed 
people  who  can  enjoy  what  they  find,  without  ques 
tion. 

EXPERIENCE 

MARCH  THIRTY-FIRST 

There  is  a  time  in  every  man's  education  when  he 
arrives  at  the  conviftion  that  envy  is  ignorance ; 
that  imitation  is  suicide ;  that  he  must  take  him 
self  for  better  for  worse  as  his  portion  ;  that  though 
the  wide  universe  is  full  of  good,  no  kernel  of  nour 
ishing  corn  can  come  to  him  but  through  his.  toil 
bestowed  on  that  plot  of  ground  which  is  given  to 
him  to  till. 

SELF-RELIANCE 


APRIL 


APRIL  FIRST 

T  OVE,  and  you  shall  be  loved.  All  love  is  mathe- 
I  J  matically  just,  as  much  as  the  two  sides  of 
an  algebraic  equation.  The  good  man  has  absolute 
good,  which  like  fire  turns  everything  to  its  own 
nature,  so  that  you  cannot  do  him  any  harm;  but  as 
the  royal  armies  sent  against  Napoleon,  when  he  ap 
proached  cast  down  their  colors  and  from  enemies 
became  friends,  so  do  disasters  of  all  kinds,  as  sick 
ness,  offence,  poverty,  prove  benefactors. 

COMPENSATION 

APRIL  SECOND 

Be  content  with  a  little  light,  so  it  be  your  own. 
Explore,  and  explore.  Be  neither  chided  nor  flat 
tered  out  of  your  position  of  perpetual  inquiry.  Nei 
ther  dogmatize,  nor  accept  another's  dogmatism. 
Why  should  you  renounce  your  right  to  traverse 
the  star-lit  deserts  of  truth,  for  the  premature  com 
forts  of  an  acre,  house,  and  barn  ?  Truth  also  has 
its  roof,  and  bed,  and  board. 

LITERARY  ETHICS 

APRIL  THIRD 

As  we  are,  so  we  do ;  and  as  we  do,  so  is  it  done 
to  us ;  we  are  the  builders  of  our  fortunes ;  cant  and 
[3-  ] 


lying  and  the  attempt  to  secure  a  good  which  does 
not  belong  to  us,  are,  once  for  all,  balked  and  vain. 

WORSHIP 

APRIL  FOURTH 

The  prosperous  and  beautiful 
To  me  seem  not  to  wear 
The  yoke  of  conscience  masterful, 
Which  galls  me  everywhere. 

Yet  spake  yon  purple  mountain, 

Yet  said  yon  ancient  wood, 

That  night  or  day,  that  love  or  crime, 

Lead  all  souls  to  the  Good.  TH£  PARR 

APRIL  FIFTH 

Nature  will  not  have  us  fret  and  fume.  She  does 
not  like  our  benevolence  or  our  learning  much  bet 
ter  than  she  likes  our  frauds  and  wars.  When  we 
come  out  of  the  caucus,  or  the  bank,  or  the  Abo 
lition  Convention,  or  the  Temperance  meeting,  or 
the  Transcendental  club  into  the  fields  and  woods, 
she  says  to  us,  "  So  hot  ?  my  little  sir." 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

APRIL  SIXTH 

You  cannot  do  wrong  without  suffering  wrong.  .  .  . 
Treat  men  as  pawns  and  ninepins  and  you  shall 
suffer  as  well  as  they.  If  you  leave  out  their  heart, 
you  shall  lose  your  own. 

COMPENSATION 

t'J»] 


APRIL  SEVENTH 

The  hero  fears  not  that  if  he  withhold  the  avowal 
of  a  just  and  brave  aft  it  will  go  unwitnessed  and 
unloved.  One  knows  it,  himself,  —  and  is  pledged 
by  it  to  sweetness  of  peace  and  to  nobleness  of  aim 
which  will  prove  in  the  end  a  better  proclamation 
of  it  than  the  relation  of  the  incident. 

SPIRITUAL   LAWS 

APRIL  EIGHTH 

It  seems  as  if  the  law  of  the  intellecl:  resembled  that 
law  of  nature  by  which  we  now  inspire,  now  ex 
pire  the  breath  ;  by  which  the  heart  now  draws  in, 
then  hurls  out  the  blood, — the  law  of  undulation. 
So  now  you  must  labor  with  your  brains,  and  now 
you  must  forbear  your  activity  and  see  what  the 
great  Soul  showeth. 

INTELLECT 

APRIL  NINTH 

What  we  seek  we  shall  find ;  what  we  flee  from 
flees  from  us.  ...  Hence  the  high  caution,  that, 
since  we  are  sure  of  having  what  we  wish,  we  be 
ware  to  ask  only  for  high  things. 

FATE 

APRIL  TENTH 

Lovers  should  guard  their  strangeness.  If  they  for 
give  too  much,  all  slides  into  confusion  and  mean 
ness. 

MANNERS 

[33] 


APRIL  ELEVENTH 

It  is  because  we  know  how  much  is  due  from  us, 
that  we  are  impatient  to  show  some  petty  talent  as 
a  substitute  for  worth.  We  are  haunted  by  a  con 
science  of  this  right  to  grandeur  of  character,  and 
are  false  to  it. 

POLITICS 

APRIL  TWELFTH 

Kings  unborn  shall  walk  with  me, 
And  the  poor  grass  shall  plot  and  plan 
What  it  will  do  when  it  is  man : 
Quickened  so,  will  I  unlock 
Every  crypt  t>f  every  rock. 

BACCHUS 

APRIL  THIRTEENTH 

The  things  that  are  really  for  thee  gravitate  to  thee. 
You  are  running  to  seek  your  friend.  Let  your  feet 
run,  but  your  mind  need  not.  If  you  do  not  find  him, 
will  you  not  acquiesce  that  it  is  best  you  should  not 
find  him  ?  for  there  is  a  power,  which  as  it  is  in 
you,  is  in  him  also,  and  could  therefore  very  well 
bring  you  together,  if  it  were  for  the  best. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

APRIL  FOURTEENTH 

All  things  exist  in  the  man  tinged  with  the  manners 
of  his  soul.  With  what  quality  is  in  him,  he  infuses 
all  nature  that  he  can  reach ;  nor  does  he  tend  to  lose 
himself  in  vastness,  but,  at  how  long  a  curve  soever, 
all  his  regards  return  into  his  own  good  at  last. 

CHARACTER 

[  34] 


APRIL  FIFTEENTH 

There  are  men  who  rise  refreshed  on  hearing  a 
threat ;  men  to  whom  a  crisis  which  intimidates 
and  paralyzes  the  majority  —  demanding  not  the 
faculties  of  prudence  and  thrift,  but  comprehension, 
immovableness,  the  readiness  of  sacrifice  —  comes 
graceful  and  beloved  as  a  bride.  V 

AN   ADDRESS 

APRIL  SIXTEENTH 

He  who  would  gather  immortal  palms  must  not  be 
hindered  by  the  name  of  goodness,  but  must  ex 
plore  if  it  be  goodness.  Nothing  is  at  last  sacred  but 
the  integrity  of  our  own  mind.  Absolve  you  to  your 
self,  and  you  shall  have  the  suffrage  of  the  world. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

APRIL  SEVENTEENTH 

By  persisting  in  your  path,  though  you  forfeit  the 
little  you  gain  the  great.  You  become  pronounced. 
You  demonstrate  yourself,  so  as  to  put  yourself  out 
of  the  reach  of  false  relations,  and  you  draw  to  you 
the  first-born  of  the  world,  —  those  rare  pilgrims 
whereof  only  one  or  two  wander  in  nature  at  once, 
and  before  whom  the  vulgar  great  show  as  spectres 
and  shadows  merely. 

FRIENDSHIP 

APRIL  EIGHTEENTH 

Why  needs  any  man  be  rich  ?  Why  must  he  have 
horses,  fine  garments,  handsome  apartments,  ac 
cess  to  public  houses  and  places  of  amusement  ? 
[35] 


Only  for  want  of  thought.  Give  his  mind  a  new 
image,  and  he  flees  into  a  solitary  garden  or  garret 
to  enjoy  it,  and  is  richer  with  that  dream  than  the 
fee  of  a  county  could  make  him. 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

APRIL  NINETEENTH 

In  our  flowing  affairs  a  decision  must  be  made, — 
the  best,  if  you  can ;  but  any  is  better  than  none. 
There  are  twenty  ways  of  going  to  a  point,  and  one 

is  the  shortest ;  but  set  out  at  once  on  one. 

POWER 

APRIL  TWENTIETH 

The  rain  has  spoiled  the  farmer's  day; 

Shall  sorrow  put  my  books  away  ? 

Thereby  are  two  days  lost : 

Nature  shall  mind  her  own  affairs, 

I  will  attend  my  proper  cares, 

In  rain,  or  sun,  or  frost.  SUUM  CUIQUE 

APRIL  TWENTY-FIRST 

To  every  creature  is  his  own  weapon,  however 
skilfully  concealed  from  himself,  a  good  while.  His 
work  is  sword  and  shield.  Let  him  accuse  none,  let 
him  injure  none.  The  way  to  mend  the  bad  world, 
is  to  create  the  right  world.  WORSHIP 

APRIL  TWENTY-SECOND 

Every  man  is  actually  weak  and  apparently  strong. 
To  himself  he  seems  weak ;  to  others  formidable. 

[36] 


You  are  afraid  of  Grim ;  but  Grim  also  is  afraid  of 
you.  You  are  solicitous  of  the  good  will  of  the 
meanest  person,  uneasy  at  his  ill  will.  But  the  stur 
diest  offender  of  your  peace  and  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  if  you  rip  up  his  claims,  is  as  thin  and  timid  as 
any;  and  the  peace  of  society  is  often  kept,  because, 
as  children  say,  one  is  afraid  and  the  other  dares  not. 

PRUDENCE 

APRIL  TWENTY-THIRD 

The  spirit  of  the  world,  the  great  calm  presence  of 
the  creator,  comes  not  forth  to  the  sorceries  of 
opium  and  wine.  The  sublime  vision  comes  to  the 
pure  and  simple  soul  in  a  clean  and  chaste  body. 

THE  POET 

APRIL  TWENTY-FOURTH 

A  man  inspires  affection  and  honor,  because  he  was 
not  lying  in  wait  for  these.  The  things  of  a  man  for 
which  we  visit  him,  were  done  in  the  dark  and  the 
cold. 

BEHAVIOR 

APRIL  TWENTY-FIFTH 

The  rain  comes  when  the  wind  calls, 
The  river  knows  the  way  to  the  sea, 
Without  a  pilot  it  runs  and  falls, 
Blessing  all  lands  with  its  charity. 


WOOD   NOTES 


[37] 


APRIL  TWENTY-SIXTH 

God  never  jests  with  us,  and  will  not  compromise 
the  end  of  Nature,  by  permitting  any  inconse 
quence  in  its  procession.  Any  distrust  of  the  perma 
nence  of  laws  would  paralyze  the  faculties  of  man. 

IDEALISM 

APRIL  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Simple  hearts  put  all  the  history  and  customs  of  this 
world  behind  them,  and  play  their  own  play  in  in 
nocent  defiance  of  the  Blue-Laws  of  the  world ;  and 
such  would  appear,  could  we  see  the  human  race 
assembled  in  vision,  like  little  children  frolicking 
together,  though  to  the  eyes  of  mankind  at  large 
they  wear  a  stately  and  solemn  garb  of  works  and 

influences. 

HEROISM 

APRIL  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

He  saw  the  partridge  drum  in  the  woods, 
He  heard  the  woodcock's  evening  hymn, 
He  found  the  tawny  thrush's  broods, 
And  the  shy  hawk  did  wait  for  him. 
What  others  did  at  distance  hear, 
And  guessed  within  the  thicket's  gloom, 
Was  showed  to  this  philosopher, 
And  at  his  bidding  seemed  to  come. 

WOOD  NOTES 

APRIL  TWENTY-NINTH 

Society  is  a  masked  ball,  where  every  one  hides  his 
real  character,  and  reveals  it  by  hiding.  If  a  man 

[38] 


wish  to  conceal  anything  he  carries,  those  whom 
he  meets  know  that  he  conceals  somewhat,  and 
usually  know  what  he  conceals.  Is  it  otherwise  if 
there  be  some  belief  or  some  purpose  he  would  bury 
in  his  breast  ?  'T  is  as  hard  to  hide  as  fire. 


APRIL  THIRTIETH 

Let  a  man  keep  the  law, — any  law, — and  his  way 
will  be  strown  with  satisfactions.  There  is  more  dif 
ference  in  the  quality  of  our  pleasures  than  in  the 
amount. 

PRUDENCE 


[  39] 


MAY 

• 

MAY  FIRST 

O  BELIEVE,  as  thou  livest,  that  every  sound 
that  is  spoken  over  the  round  world,  which 
thou  oughtest  to  hear,  will  vibrate  on  thine  ear. 
Every  proverb,  every  book,  every  by-word  that  be 
longs  to  thee  for  aid  or  comfort,  shall  surely  come 
home  through  open  or  winding  passage.  Every 
friend  whom  not  thy  fantastic  will  but  the  great 
and  tender  heart  in  thee  craveth,  shall  lock  thee  in 
his  embrace. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

MAY  SECOND 

God  offers  to  every  mind  its  choice  between  truth 
and  repose.  Take  which  you  please, — you  can 
never  have  both.  Between  these,  as  a  pendulum, 
man  oscillates. 

INTELLECT 

MAY  THIRD 

Eat  thou  the  bread  which  men  refuse ; 
Flee  from  the  goods  which  from  thee  flee ; 
Seek  nothing ;  Fortune  seeketh  thee. 


MAY  FOURTH 

Beware  when  the  great  God  lets  loose  a  thinker  on 
this  planet.  Then  all  things  are  at  risk.  It  is  as  when 
a  conflagration  has  broken  out  in  a  great  city,  and 
no  man  knows  what  is  safe,  or  where  it  will  end. 

CIRCLES 

MAY  FIFTH 

I  like  to  see  that  we  cannot  be  bought  and  sold. 
The  best  of  hospitality  and  of  generosity  is  also  not 
in  the  will  but  in  fate.  I  find  that  I  am  not  much 
to  you ;  you  do  not  need  me  ;  you  do  not  feel  me ; 
then  am  I  thrust  out  of  doors,  though  you  proffer 
me  house  and  lands. 

GIFTS 

MAY  SIXTH 

The  poet,  the  prophet,  has  a  higher  value  for  what 
he  utters  than  any  hearer,  and  therefore  it  gets 
spoken. 


NATURE 


MAY  SEVENTH 

Then  I  said,  "I  covet  Truth  ; 
Beauty  is  unripe  childhood's  cheat, — 
I  leave  it  behind  with  the  games  of  youth." 
As  I  spoke,  beneath  my  feet 
The  ground-pine  curled  its  pretty  wreath, 
Running  over  the  club-moss  burrs ; 
I  inhaled  the  violet's  breath ; 
Around  me  stood  the  oaks  and  firs ; 
Pine  cones  and  acorns  lay  on  the  ground  ; 
[4*] 


Above  me  soared  the  eternal  sky, 

Full  of  light  and  deity  ; 

Again  I  saw,  again  I  heard, 

The  rolling  river,  the  morning  bird ;  — 

Beauty  through  my  senses  stole, 

I  yielded  myself  to  the  perfect  whole. 

EACH   AND   ALL 

MAY  EIGHTH 

Let  us  be  poised,  and  wise,  and  our  own,  to-day. 
Let  us  treat  the  men  and  women  well :  treat  them 
as  if  they  were  real :  perhaps  they  are. 

EXPERIENCE 

MAY  NINTH 

If  you  follow  the  suburban  fashion  in  building  a 
sumptuous-looking  house  for  a  little  money,  it  will 
appear  to  all  eyes  as  a  cheap  dear  house.  There  is 
no  privacy  that  cannot  be  penetrated.  No  secret 
can  be  kept  in  the  civilized  world. 

WORSHIP 

MAY  TENTH 

At  the  gates  of  the  forest,  the  surprised  man  of  the 
world  is  forced  to  leave  his  city  estimates  of  great 
and  small,  wise  and  foolish.  The  knapsack  of  cus 
tom  falls  off  his  back  with  the  first  step  he  makes 
into  these  precincts.  Here  is  sanctity  which  shames 
our  religions,  and  reality  which  discredits  our  he 
roes.  Here  we  find  nature  to  be  the  circumstance 
which  dwarfs  every  other  circumstance,  and  judges 
like  a  god  all  men  that  come  to  her. 

NATURE 

[43] 


MAY  ELEVENTH 

Rhodora  !  if  the  sages  ask  thee  why 
This  charm  is  wasted  on  the  earth  and  sky, 
Tell  them,  dear,  that,  if  eyes  were  made  for  seeing, 
Then  beauty  is  its  own  excuse  for  being ; 
Why  thou  wert  there,  O  rival  of  the  rose ! 
I  never  thought  to  ask ;  I  never  knew ; 
But  in  my  simple  ignorance  suppose 
The   self-same    power    that   brought    me   there, 
brought  you. 

THE  RHODORA 

MAY  TWELFTH 

We  can  never  see  Christianity  from  the  catechism ; 
—  from  the  pastures,  from  a  boat  in  the  pond,  from 
amidst  the  songs  of  wood-birds  we  possibly  may. 

CIRCLES 

MAY  THIRTEENTH 

He  who  travels  to  be  amused  or  to  get  somewhat 
which  he  does  not  carry,  travels  away  from  him 
self,  and  grows  old  even  in  youth  among  old  things. 
In  Thebes,  in  Palmyra,  his  will  and  mind  have  be 
come  old  and  dilapidated  as  they.  He  carries  ruins 
to  ruins. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

MAY  FOURTEENTH 

Oft  didst  thou  thread  the  woods  in  vain 
To  find  what  bird  had  piped  the  strain, — 
Seek  not,  and  the  little  eremite 
Flies  gayly  forth  and  sings  in  sight. 

WOOD   NOTES 

[44] 


MAY  FIFTEENTH 

If  thou  fill  thy  brain  with  Boston  and  New  York, 
with  fashion  and  covetousness,  and  wilt  stimulate 
thy  jaded  senses  with  wine  and  French  coffee,  thou 
shalt  find  no  radiance  of  wisdom  in  the  lonely  waste 
of  the  pinewoods. 


THE  POET 


MAY  SIXTEENTH 

We  fancy  men  are  individuals ;  so  are  pumpkins ; 
but  every  pumpkin  in  the  field,  goes  through  every 
point  of  pumpkin  history. 

NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST 

MAY  SEVENTEENTH 

Give  me  health  and  a  day,  and  I  will  make  the 
pomp  of  emperors  ridiculous.  The  dawn  is  my  As 
syria  ;  the  sunset  and  moonrise  my  Paphos,  and  un 
imaginable  realms  of  faerie ;  broad  noon  shall  be  my 
England  of  the  senses  and  the  understanding;  the 
night  shall  be  my  Germany  of  mystic  philosophy 
and  dreams. 

BEAUTY 

MAY  EIGHTEENTH 

Onward,  and  nearer  draws  the  sun  of  May, 
And  wide  around  the  marriage  of  the  plants 
Is  sweetly  solemnized ;  then  flows  amain 
The  surge  of  summer's  beauty ;  dell  and  crag, 
Hollow  and  lake,  hill-side,  and  pine  arcade, 
Are  touched  with  genius.  Yonder  ragged  cliff 
Has  thousand  faces  in  a  thousand  hours. 

r  -I  MUSKETAQUID 


MAY  NINETEENTH 

Right  ethics  are  central,  and  go  from  the  soul  out 
ward.  Gift  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  the  universe. 
Serving  others  is  serving  us.  I  must  absolve  me  to 
myself. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

MAY  TWENTIETH 

We  foolishly  think  in  our  days  of  sin  that  we  must 
court  friends  by  compliance  to  the  customs  of  so 
ciety,  to  its  dress,  its  breeding,  and  its  estimates.  But 
later  if  we  are  so  happy  we  learn  that  only  that 
soul  can  be  my  friend  which  I  encounter  on  the 
line  of  my  own  march,  that  soul  to  which  I  do  not 
decline  and  which  does  not  decline  to  me,  but,  na 
tive  of  the  same  celestial  latitude,  repeats  in  its  own 
all  my  experience. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

MAY  TWENTY-FIRST 

A  man  who  is  sure  of  his  point,  carries  a  broad  and 
contented  expression,  which  everybody  reads.  And 
you  cannot  rightly  train  one  to  an  air  and  manner, 
except  by  making  him  the  kind  of  man  of  whom 
that  manner  is  the  natural  expression.  Nature  for 
ever  puts  a  premium  on  reality.  What  is  done  for 
effect,  is  seen  to  be  done  for  effect ;  what  is  done 
for  love,  is  felt  to  be  done  for  love. 


BEHAVIOR 


[46] 


MAY  TWENTY-SECOND 

A  man  should  not  tell  me  that  he  has  walked  among 
the  angels :  his  proof  is  that  his  eloquence  makes 
me  one. 

SWEDENBORGJOR,  THE  MYSTIC 

MAY  TWENTY-THIRD 

Past  utterance  and  past  belief, 
And  past  the  blasphemy  of  grief, 
The  mysteries  of  nature's  heart,  — 
And  though  no  muse  can  these  impart, 
Throb  thine  with  nature's  throbbing  breast, 
And  all  is  clear  from  east  to  west. 

THRENODY 

MAY  TWENTY-FOURTH 

Men  hold  themselves  cheap  and  vile:  and  yet  a  man 
is  a  fagot  of  thunderbolts.  All  the  elements  pour 
through  his  system:  he  is  the  flood  of  the  flood,  and 
fire  of  the  fire  ;  he  feels  the  antipodes  and  the  pole, 
as  drops  of  his  blood:  they  are  the  extension  of  his 
personality.  His  duties  are  measured  by  that  instru 
ment  he  is;  and  a  right  and  perfect  man  would  be 
felt  to  the  centre  of  the  Copernican  system. 

BEAUTY 

MAY  TWENTY-FIFTH 

There  is  no  luck  in  literary  reputation.  They  who 
make  up  the  final  verdict  upon  every  book  are  not 
the  partial  and  noisy  readers  of  the  hour  when  it 
appears,  but  a  court  as  of  angels,  a  public  not  to  be 
bribed,  not  to  be  entreated  and  not  to  be  overawed, 
[47] 


decides  upon  every  man's  title  to  fame.  Only  those 
books  come  down  which  deserve  to  last. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

MAY  TWENTY-SIXTH 
Pride  ruined  the  angels, 
Their  shame  them  restores, 
And  the  joy  that  is  sweetest 
Lurks  in  stings  of  remorse. 
Have  I  a  lover 
Who  is  noble  and  free, — 
I  would  he  were  nobler 
Than  to  love  me.  TH£  spHYNX 

MAY  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

The  only  reward  of  virtue  is  virtue:  the  only  way 
to  have  a  friend  is  to  be  one.  You  shall  not  come 
nearer  a  man  by  getting  into  his  house.  If  unlike, 
his  soul  only  flees  the  faster  from  you,  and  you  shall 
catch  never  a  true  glance  of  his  eye.  We  see  the 
noble  afar  off  and  they  repel  us;  why  should  we 
intrude  ?  FRIENDSHIP 

MAY  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

The  poet  alone  knows  astronomy,  chemistry,  vege 
tation,  and  animation,  for  he  does  not  stop  at  these 
facts,  but  employs  them  as  signs.  He  knows  why 
the  plain,  or  meadow  of  space,  was  strown  with 
these  flowers  we  call  suns,  and  moons,  and  stars; 
why  the  great  deep  is  adorned  with  animals,  with 
men,  and  gods;  for,  in  every  word  he  speaks  he  rides 
on  them  as  the  horses  of  thought.  THE  pQET 


MAY  TWENTY-NINTH 

All  private  sympathy  is  partial.  Two  human  beings 
are  like  globes,  which  can  touch  only  in  a  point,  and, 
whilst  they  remain  in  contact,  all  other  points  of 
each  of  the  spheres  are  inert ;  their  turn  must  also 
come,  and  the  longer  a  particular  union  lasts,  the 
more  energy  of  appetency  the  parts  not  in  union 
acquire.  EXPERIENCE 

MAY  THIRTIETH 

Genius  is  religious.  It  is  a  larger  imbibing  of  the 
common  heart.  It  is  not  anomalous,  but  more  like 
and  not  less  like  other  men.  There  is  in  all  great 
poets  a  wisdom  of  humanity  which  is  superior  to 
any  talents  they  exercise.  The  author,  the  wit,  the 
partisan,  the  fine  gentleman,  does  not  take  place 
of  the  man.  THE  OVER-SOUL 

MAY  THIRTY-FIRST 

It  is  a  secret  which  every  intellectual  man  quickly 
learns,  that,  beyond  the  energy  of  his  possessed  and 
conscious  intellect,  he  is  capable  of  a  new  energy 
( as  of  an  intellect  doubled  on  itself),  by  abandon 
ment  to  the  nature  of  things;  that,  beside  his  pri 
vacy  of  power  as  an  individual  man,  there  is  a  great 
public  power,  on  which  he  can  draw,  by  unlock 
ing,  at  all  risks,  his  human  doors,  and  suffering  the 
ethereal  tides  to  roll  and  circulate  through  him :  then 
he  is  caught  up  into  the  life  of  the  Universe,  his 
speech  is  thunder,  his  thought  is  law,  and  his  words 
are  universally  intelligible  as  the  plants  and  animals. 

[  49  ]  THE  POET 


JUNE 

JUNE  FIRST 

THE  south-wind  brings 
Life,  sunshine,  and  desire, 
And  on  every  mount  and  meadow 
Breathes  aromatic  fire. 

THRENODY 

JUNE  SECOND 

Has  the  naturalist  or  chemist  learned  his  craft,  who 
has  explored  the  gravity  of  atoms  and  the  elective 
affinities,  who  has  not  yet  discerned  the  deeper  law 
whereof  this  is  only  a  partial  or  approximate  state 
ment,  namely  that  like  draws  to  like,  and  that  the 
goods  which  belong  to  you  gravitate  to  you  and 

need  not  be  pursued  with  pains  and  cost  ? 

CIRCLES 

JUNE  THIRD 

Insight  we  must  have,  or  we  shall  run  against  one 
another,  and  miss  the  way  to  our  food;  but  intellect 
is  selfish  and  barren.  The  secret  of  success  in  so 
ciety,  is  a  certain  heartiness  and  sympathy. 

MANNERS 


[5-] 


JUNE  FOURTH 

All  just  persons  are  satisfied  with  their  own  praise. 
They  refuse  to  explain  themselves,  and  are  content 
that  new  actions  should  do  them  that  office.  They 
believe  that  we  communicate  without  speech,  and 
above  speech,  and  that  no  right  action  of  ours  is 
quite  unaffecting  to  our  friends,  at  whatever  dis 
tance;  for  the  influence  of  action  is  not  to  be  mea 
sured  by  miles. 


EXPERIENCE 


JUNE  FIFTH 

Lover  of  all  things  alive, 
Wonderer  at  all  he  meets, 
Wonderer  chiefly  at  himself, — 
Who  can  tell  him  what  he  is, 
Or  how  meet  in  human  elf 
Coming  and  past  eternities. 


WOOD  NOTES 


JUNE  SIXTH 

The  one  serious  and  formidable  thing  in  nature  is 
a  will.  Society  is  servile  for  want  of  will,  and  there 
fore  the  world  wants  saviours  and  religions. 

FATE 

JUNE  SEVENTH 

We  shall  one  day  see  that  the  most  private  is  the 
most  public  energy,  that  quality  atones  for  quan 
tity,  and  grandeur  of  character  acts  in  the  dark,  and 
succors  them  who  never  saw  it.  What  greatness  has 
yet  appeared,  is  beginnings  and  encouragements  to 

[5*] 


us  in  this  direction.  The  history  of  those  gods  and 
saints  which  the  world  has  written,  and  then  wor 
shipped,  are  documents  of  character. 

CHARACTER 

JUNE  EIGHTH 

I  thought  the  sparrow's  note  from  heaven, 
Singing  at  dawn  on  the  alder  bough ; 
I  brought  him  home  in  his  nest  at  even ; — 
He  sings  the  song,  but  it  pleases  not  now; 
For  I  did  not  bring  home  the  river  and  sky; 
He  sang  to  my  ear ;  they  sang  to  my  eye. 

EACH   AND  ALL 

JUNE  NINTH 

Men  are  helpful  through  the  intellect  and  the  af 
fections.  Other  help,  I  find  a  false  appearance.  If 
you  affect  to  give  me  bread  and  fire,  I  perceive  that 
I  pay  for  it  the  full  price,  and  at  last  it  leaves  me 
as  it  found  me,  neither  better  nor  worse ;  but  all 
mental  and  moral  force  is  a  positive  good.  It  goes 
out  from  you,  whether  you  will  or  not,  and  profits 
me  whom  you  never  thought  of. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

JUNE  TENTH 

Let  a  man  learn  to  look  for  the  permanent  in  the 
mutable  and  fleeting;  let  him  learn  to  bear  the  dis 
appearance  of  things  he  was  wont  to  reverence,  let 
him  learn  that  he  is  here,  not  to  work,  but  to  be 
worked  upon ;  and  that,  though  abyss  open  under 
abyss  and  opinion  displace  opinion,  all  are  at  last 
contained  in  the  Eternal  Cause.  MONTAIGNE 

[53] 


JUNE  ELEVENTH 

All  my  hurts 

My  garden-spade  can  heal.  A  woodland  walk, 
A  wild  rose,  or  rock-loving  columbine, 
Salve  my  worst  wounds,  and  leave  no  cicatrice. 

MUSK.ETAQUID 

JUNE  TWELFTH 

The  world  is  his,  who  can  see  through  its  preten 
sion.  What  deafness,  what  stone-blind  custom,  what 
overgrown  error  you  behold,  is  there  only  by  suf 
ferance,  —  by  your  sufferance.  See  it  to  be  a  lie,  and 
you  have  already  dealt  it  its  mortal  blow. 

THE  AMERICAN  SCHOLAR 

JUNE  THIRTEENTH 

He  who  knows  the  most,  he  who  knows  what 
sweets  and  virtues  are  in  the  ground,  the  waters, 
the  plants,  the  heavens,  and  how  to  come  at  these 
enchantments,  is  the  rich  and  royal  man.  Only  as 
far  as  the  masters  of  the  world  have  called  in  na 
ture  to  their  aid,  can  they  reach  the  height  of  mag 
nificence.  NATURE 

JUNE  FOURTEENTH 

The  difference  between  landscape  and  landscape 
is  small,  but  there  is  great  difference  in  the  behold 
ers.  There  is  nothing  so  wonderful  in  any  particu 
lar  landscape,  as  the  necessity  of  being  beautiful 
under  which  every  landscape  lies.  Nature  cannot 
be  surprised  in  undress.  Beauty  breaks  in  every- 

WnerC-  NATURE 

[54] 


JUNE  FIFTEENTH 

He  trod  the  unplanted  forest-floor,  whereon 
The  all-seeing  sun  for  ages  hath  not  shone, 
Where  feeds  the  moose,  and  walks  the  surly  bear, 
And  up  the  tall  mast  runs  the  woodpecker. 
He  saw,  beneath  dim  aisles,  in  odorous  beds, 
The  slight  Linnaea  hang  its  twin-born  heads. 

WOOD   NOTES 

JUNE  SIXTEENTH 

We  have  crept  out  of  our  close  and  crowded  houses 
into  the  night  and  morning,  and  we  see  what  ma 
jestic  beauties  daily  wrap  us  in  their  bosom.  How 
willingly  we  would  escape  the  barriers  which  render 
them  comparatively  impotent,  escape  the  sophisti 
cation  and  second  thought,  and  suffer  nature  to  en 
trance  us.  The  tempered  light  of  the  woods  is  like 
a  perpetual  morning,  and  is  stimulating  and  heroic. 

NATURE 

JUNE  SEVENTEENTH 

Has  anything  grand  and  lasting  been  done  ?  Who 
did  it  ?  Plainly  not  any  man,  but  all  men :  it  was  the 
prevalence  and  inundation  of  an  idea. 

THE  METHOD  OF   NATURE 

JUNE  EIGHTEENTH 

Men  talk  as  if  victory  were  something  fortunate. 
Work  is  victory.  Wherever  work  is  done,  victory  is 
obtained.  There  is  no  chance,  and  no  blanks. 

WORSHIP 

[55] 


JUNE  NINETEENTH 

'T  was  one  of  the  charmed  days 

When  the  genius  of  God  doth  flow, 

The  wind  may  alter  twenty  ways, 

A  tempest  cannot  blow : 

It  may  blow  north,  it  still  is  warm; 

Or  south,  it  still  is  clear ; 

Or  east,  it  smells  like  a  clover  farm; 

Or  west,  no  thunder  fear. 

WOOD  NOTES 

JUNE  TWENTIETH 

The  secret  of  culture  is  to  learn,  that  a  few  great 
points  steadily  reappear,  alike  in  the  poverty  of  the 
obscurest  farm,  and  in  the  miscellany  of  metropoli 
tan  life,  and  that  these  few  are  alone  to  be  regarded, 
—  the  escape  from  all  false  ties  ;  courage  to  be  what 
we  are ;  and  love  of  what  is  simple  and  beautiful ; 
independence,  and  cheerful  relation,  these  are  the 
essential,  —  these,  and  the  wish  to  serve, — to  add 
somewhat  to  the  well-being  of  man. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

JUNE  TWENTY-FIRST 

For  the  world  was  built  in  order, 
And  the  atoms  march  in  tune, 
Rhyme  the  pipe,  and  time  the  warder, 
Cannot  forget  the  sun,  the  moon. 

MONADNOC 


[56] 


JUNE  TWENTY-SECOND 

From  within,  or  from  behind,  a  light  shines  through 
us  upon  things  and  makes  us  aware  that  we  are 
nothing,  but  the  light  is  all.  A  man  is  the  facade 
of  a  temple  wherein  all  wisdom  and  all  good  abide. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

JUNE  TWENTY-THIRD 

You  must  pay  at  last  your  own  debt.  If  you  are  wise 
you  will  dread  a  prosperity  which  only  loads  you 
with  more.  Benefit  is  the  end  of  nature.  But  for 
every  benefit  which  you  receive,  a  tax  is  levied.  He 
is  great  who  confers  the  most  benefits.  He  is  base, 
— and  that  is  the  one  base  thing  in  the  universe, — 
to  receive  favors  and  render  none. 

COMPENSATION 

JUNE  TWENTY-FOURTH 

Manners  aim  to  facilitate  life,  to  get  rid  of  impedi 
ments,  and  bring  the  man  pure  to  energize.  They 
aid  our  dealing  and  conversation,  as  a  railway  aids 
travelling,  by  getting  rid  of  all  avoidable  obstruc 
tions  of  the  road,  and  leaving  nothing  to  be  con 
quered  but  pure  space. 

MANNERS 

JUNE  TWENTY-FIFTH 

Genial  manners  are  good,  and  power  of  accommo 
dation  to  any  circumstance,  but  the  high  prize  of 
life,  the  crowning  fortune  of  a  man  is  to  be  born 
with  a  bias  to  some  pursuit,  which  finds  him  in  em- 

[57] 


ployment  and  happiness,  —  whether  it  be  to  make 
baskets,  or  broadswords,  or  canals,  or  statutes,  or 
songs. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

JUNE  TWENTY-SIXTH 

To  my  friend  I  write  a  letter  and  from  him  I  re 
ceive  a  letter.  That  seems  to  you  a  little.  Me  it  suf 
fices.  It  is  a  spiritual  gift,  worthy  of  him  to  give  and 
of  me  to  receive.  It  profanes  nobody.  In  these  warm 
lines  the  heart  will  trust  itself,  as  it  will  not  to  the 
tongue,  and  pour  out  the  prophecy  of  a  godlier  ex 
istence  than  all  the  annals  of  heroism  have  yet  made 
good. 

FRIENDSHIP 

JUNE  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

The  whole  intercourse  of  society,  its  trade,  its  re 
ligion,  its  friendships,  its  quarrels,  —  is  one  wide 
judicial  investigation  of  character.  In  full  court,  or 
in  small  committee,  or  confronted  face  to  face,  ac 
cuser  or  accused,  men  offer  themselves  to  be  judged. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

JUNE  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Let  us  understand  that  the  equitable  rule  is,  that  no 
one  should  take  more  than  his  share,  let  him  be  ever 
so  rich.  Let  me  feel  that  I  am  to  be  a  lover.  I  am  to 
see  to  it  that  the  world  is  the  better  for  me,  and  to 
find  my  reward  in  the  act. 

MAN  THE   REFORMER 

[  58  ] 


JUNE  TWENTY-NINTH 

Earth  proudly  wears  the  Parthenon 
As  the  best  gem  upon  her  zone ; 
And  Morning  opes  with  haste  her  lids 
To  gaze  upon  the  Pyramids ; 
O'er  England's  abbeys  bends  the  sky 
As  on  its  friends  with  kindred  eye ; 
For  out  of  Thought's  interior  sphere 
These  wonders  rose  to  upper  air, 
And  nature  gladly  gave  them  place, 
Adopted  them  into  her  race, 
And  granted  them  an  equal  date 
With  Andes  and  with  Ararat. 

THE  PROBLEM 

JUNE  THIRTIETH 

The  path  which  the  hero  travels  alone  is  the  high 
way  of  health  and  benefit  to  mankind.  What  is  the 
privilege  and  nobility  of  our  nature  but  its  persis 
tency,  through  its  power  to  attach  itself  to  what 
is  permanent  ? 

THE  TRANSCENDENTALIST 


[59] 


JULY 

•  • 

JULY  FIRST 

THE  lover  of  Nature  is  he  whose  inward  and 
outward  senses  are  still  truly  adjusted  to  each 
other  ;  who  has  retained  the  spirit  of  infancy  even 
into  the  era  of  manhood.  His  intercourse  with  hea 
ven  and  earth  becomes  part  of  his  daily  food. 

NATURE 

JULY  SECOND 

In  the  thought  of  to-morrow  there  is  a  power  to  up 
heave  all  thy  creed,  all  the  creeds,  all  the  literatures 
of  the  nations,  and  marshal  thee  to  a  heaven  which 
no  epic  dream  has  yet  depicted.  Every  man  is  not 
so  much  a  workman  in  the  world  as  he  is  a  sug 
gestion  of  that  he  should  be.  Men  walk  as  prophe 
cies  of  the  next  age. 


CIRCLES 


JULY  THIRD 

We  buy  ashes  for  bread, 

We  buy  diluted  wine; 

Give  me  of  the  true, 

Whose  ample  leaves  and  tendrils  curled 

Among  the  silver  hills  of  heaven, 

Draw  everlasting  dew. 


BACCHUS 


JULY  FOURTH 

The  power  of  manners  is  incessant, — an  element 
as  unconcealable  as  fire.  The  nobility  cannot  in 
any  country  be  disguised,  and  no  more  in  a  repub 
lic  or  a  democracy  than  in  a  kingdom.  No  man 
can  resist  their  influence. 

BEHAVIOR 

JULY  FIFTH 

Is  not  prayer  also  a  study  of  truth, — a  sally  of  the 
soul  into  the  unfound  infinite  ?  No  man  ever  prayed 
heartily  without  learning  something. 

PROSPECTS 

JULY  SIXTH 

There  was  never  mystery, 
But  Jt  is  figured  in  the  flowers, 
Was  never  secret  history, 
But  birds  tell  it  in  the  bowers. 

THE  APOLOGY 

JULY  SEVENTH 

We  see  literature  best  from  the  midst  of  wild  na 
ture,  or  from  the  din  of  affairs,  or  from  a  high  re 
ligion.  The  field  cannot  be  well  seen  from  within 
the  field.  The  astronomer  must  have  his  diameter 
of  the  earth's  orbit  as  a  base  to  find  the  parallax  of 
any  star. 

CIRCLES 

JULY  EIGHTH 

Because  ecstasy  is  the  law  and  cause  of  Nature, 
therefore  you  cannot  interpret  it  in  too  high  and 


deep  a  sense.  Nature  represents  the  best  meaning 
of  the  wisest  man. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

JULY  NINTH 

The  tradesman,  the  attorney,  comes  out  of  the  din 
and  craft  of  the  street,  and  sees  the  sky  and  the 
woods,  and  is  a  man  again.  In  their  eternal  calm 
he  finds  himself.  The  health  of  the  eye  seems  to 
demand  a  horizon.  We  are  never  tired,  so  long  as 

we  can  see  far  enough. 

BEAUTY 

JULY  TENTH 

All  things  are  moral,  and  in  their  boundless  changes 
have  an  unceasing  reference  to  spiritual  nature. 

DISCIPLINE 

JULY  ELEVENTH 

Men  suffer  all  their  life  long  under  the  foolish  super 
stition  that  they  can  be  cheated.  But  it  is  as  impos 
sible  for  a  man  to  be  cheated  by  any  one  but  himself, 
as  it  is  for  a  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the  same 
time.  There  is  a  third  silent  party  to  all  our  bargains. 
The  nature  and  soul  of  things  takes  on  itself  the 
guaranty  of  the  fulfilment  of  every  contract,  so  that 
honest  service  cannot  come  to  loss. 

COMPENSATION 

JULY  TWELFTH 

A  subtle  chain  of  countless  rings 
The  next  unto  the  farthest  brings; 
The  eye  reads  omens  where  it  goes, 

[63] 


And  speaks  all  languages  the  rose ; 
And,  striving  to  be  man,  the  worm 
Mounts  through  all  the  spires  of  form. 

NATURE 

JULY  THIRTEENTH 

He  teaches  who  gives,  and  he  learns  who  receives. 
There  is  no  teaching  until  the  pupil  is  brought  in 
to  the  same  state  or  principle  in  which  you  are ;  a 
transfusion  takes  place ;  he  is  you  and  you  are  he  ; 
then  is  a  teaching,  and  by  no  unfriendly  chance  or 
bad  company  can  he  ever  quite  lose  the  benefit. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

JULY  FOURTEENTH 

There  are  three  wants  which  never  can  be  satisfied: 
that  of  the  rich,  who  wants  something  more;  that  of 
the  sick,  who  wants  something  different;  and  that 
of  the  traveller,  who  says,  "Anywhere  but  here." 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

JULY  FIFTEENTH 

Wiser  far  than  human  seer, 
Yellow-breeched  philosopher ! 
Seeing  only  what  is  fair, 
Sipping  only  what  is  sweet, 
Thou  dost  mock  at  fate  and  care, 
Leave  the  chaff  and  take  the  wheat. 

THE  HUMBLEBEE 

JULY  SIXTEENTH 

People  grieve  and  bemoan  themselves,  but  it  is  not 
half  so  bad  with  them  as  they  say.  There  are  moods 

[64] 


in  which  we  court  suffering,  in  the  hope  that  here, 
at  least,  we  shall  find  reality,  sharp  peaks  and  edges 
of  truth.  But  it  turns  out  to  be  scene-painting  and 
counterfeit.  The  only  thing  grief  has  taught  me,  is 
to  know  how  shallow  it  is. 

EXPERIENCE 

JULY  SEVENTEENTH 

Our  spontaneous  action  is  always  the  best.  You  can 
not  with  your  best  deliberation  and  heed  come  so 
close  to  any  question  as  your  spontaneous  glance 
shall  bring  you,  whilst  you  rise  from  your  bed,  or 
walk  abroad  in  the  morning  after  meditating  the 
matter  before  sleep  on  the  previous  night. 

INTELLECT 

JULY  EIGHTEENTH 

The  one  thing  which  we  seek  with  insatiable  desire 
is  to  forget  ourselves,  to  be  surprised  out  of  our  pro 
priety,  to  lose  our  sempiternal  memory  and  to  do 
something  without  knowing  how  or  why;  in  short 
to  draw  a  new  circle.  Nothing  great  was  ever 
achieved  without  enthusiasm.  The  way  of  life  is 

wonderful.  It  is  by  abandonment. 

CIRCLES 

JULY  NINETEENTH 

Love's  hearts  are  faithful,  but  not  fond, 
Bound  for  the  just,  but  not  beyond; 
Not  glad,  as  the  low-loving  herd, 
Of  self  in  others  still  preferred, 
But  they  have  heartily  designed 
The  benefit  of  broad  mankind. 

I"    £r    ]  CELESTIAL  LOVE 


JULY  TWENTIETH 

What  is  man  born  for  but  to  be  a  reformer,  a  re- 
maker  of  what  man  has  made ;  a  renouncer  of  lies; 
a  restorer  of  truth  and  good,  imitating  that  great 
Nature  which  embosoms  us  all,  and  which  sleeps  no 
moment  on  an  old  past,  but  every  hour  repairs  her 
self,  yielding  us  every  morning  a  new  day,  and  with 
every  pulsation  a  new  life  ? 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

JULY  TWENTY-FIRST 

No  man  can  write  anything,  who  does  not  think 
that  what  he  writes  is  for  the  time  the  history  of  the 
world ;  or  do  anything  well,  who  does  not  esteem 
his  work  to  be  of  importance.  My  work  may  be  of 
none,  but  I  must  not  think  it  of  none,  or  I  shall  not 
do  it  with  impunity. 

NATURE 

JULY  TWENTY-SECOND 

Our  religion  vulgarly  stands  on  numbers  of  believ 
ers.  Whenever  the  appeal  is  made,  —  no  matter 
how  indirectly, — to  numbers,  proclamation  is  then 
and  there  made  that  religion  is  not.  He  that  finds 
God  a  sweet  enveloping  thought  to  him  never 
counts  his  company. 


THE  OVER-SOUL 


JULY  TWENTY-THIRD 

Of  all  wit's  uses,  the  main  one 
Is  to  live  well  with  who  has  none. 
Cleave  to  thine  acre ;  the  round  year 
[66] 


Will  fetch  all  fruits  and  virtues  here : 
Fool  and  foe  may  harmless  roam, 
Loved  and  lovers  bide  at  home. 
A  day  for  toil,  an  hour  for  sport, 
But  for  a  friend  is  life  too  short. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

JULY  TWENTY-FOURTH 

We  dress  our  garden,  eat  our  dinners,  discuss  the 
household  with  our  wives,  and  these  things  make 
no  impression,  are  forgotten  next  week;  but  in  the 
solitude  to  which  every  man  is  always  returning,  he 
has  a  sanity  and  revelations,  which  in  his  passage 
into  new  worlds  he  will  carry  with  him.  Never 
mind  the  ridicule,  never  mind  the  defeat:  up  again, 
old  heart ! — it  seems  to  say,  —  there  is  victory  yet 
for  all  justice ;  and  the  true  romance  which  the 
world  exists  to  realize,  will  be  the  transformation 
of  genius  into  rjraclical  power. 

EXPERIENCE 

JULY  TWENTY-FIFTH 

The  sweetest  music  is  not  in  the  oratorio,  but  in 
the  human  voice  when  it  speaks  from  its  instant 
life  tones  of  tenderness,  truth,  or  courage. 

ART 

JULY  TWENTY-SIXTH 

We  pass  for  what  we  are.  Character  teaches  above 
our  wills.  Men  imagine  that  they  communicate 
their  virtue  or  vice  only  by  overt  actions,  and  do  not 
see  that  virtue  or  vice  emit  a  breath  every  moment. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

[67] 


JULY  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

Tax  not  my  sloth  that  I 
Fold  my  arms  beside  the  brook ; 
Each  cloud  that  floated  in  the  sky 
Writes  a  letter  in  my  book. 


THE  APOLOGY 


JULY  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

O  my  brothers,  God  exists.  There  is  a  soul  at  the 
centre  of  nature  and  over  the  will  of  every  man, 
so  that  none  of  us  can  wrong  the  universe.  It  has 
so  infused  its  strong  enchantment  into  nature  that 
we  prosper  when  we  accept  its  advice,  and  when  we 
struggle  to  wound  its  creatures  our  hands  are  glued 
to  our  sides,  or  they  beat  our  own  breasts. 

SPIRITUAL   LAWS 

JULY  TWENTY-NINTH 

It  is  the  privilege  of  any  human  work  which  is  well 
done  to  invest  the  doer  with  a  certain  haughtiness. 
He  can  well  afford  not  to  conciliate,  whose  faithful 
work  will  answer  for  him. 

WEALTH 

JULY  THIRTIETH 

It  is  for  us  to  believe  in  the  rule,  not  in  the  excep 
tion.  The  noble  are  thus  known  from  the  ignoble. 
So  in  accepting  the  leading  of  the  sentiments,  it  is 
not  what  we  believe  concerning  the  immortality 
of  the  soul,  or  the  like,  but  the  universal  Impulse  to 
believe,  that  is  the  material  circumstance,  and  is  the 
principal  fa6l  in  the  history  of  the  globe. 

EXPERIENCE 

[68] 


JULY  THIRTY-FIRST 

Men  are  what  their  mothers  made  them.  You  may 
as  well  ask  a  loom  which  weaves  huckaback,  why  it 
does  not  make  cashmere,  as  expect  poetry  from  this 
engineer,  or  a  chemical  discovery  from  that  jobber. 

FATE 


[69] 


AUGUST 


AUGUST  FIRST 

THE  wise  man  always  throws  himself  on  the 
side  of  his  assailants.  It  is  more  his  interest 
than  it  is  theirs  to  find  his  weak  point.  The  wound 
cicatrizes  and  falls  off  from  him  like  a  dead  skin 
and  when  they  would  triumph,  lo !  he  has  passed 
on  invulnerable. 

COMPENSATION 

AUGUST  SECOND 

For  this  is  love's  nobility, 
Not  to  scatter  bread  and  gold, 
Goods  and  raiment  bought  and  sold, 
But  to  hold  fast  his  simple  sense, 
And  speak  the  speech  of  innocence. 

CELESTIAL   LOVE 

AUGUST  THIRD 

A  foolish  consistency  is  the  hobgoblin  of  little 
minds,  adored  by  little  statesmen  and  philosophers 
and  divines.  With  consistency  a  great  soul  has 
simply  nothing  to  do.  He  may  as  well  concern  him 
self  with  his  shadow  on  the  wall. 

SELF-RELIANCE 


AUGUST  FOURTH 

To  go  into  solitude,  a  man  needs  to  retire  as  much 
from  his  chamber  as  from  society.  I  am  not  solitary 
whilst  I  read  and  write,  though  nobody  is  with  me. 
But  if  a  man  would  be  alone,  let  him  look  at  the 
stars. 

NATURE 

AUGUST  FIFTH 

Enough  for  thee  the  primal  mind 

That  flows  in  streams,  that  breathes  in  wind. 

Leave  all  thy  pedant  lore  apart ; 

God  hid  the  whole  world  in  thy  heart. 

WOOD  NOTES 

AUGUST  SIXTH 

Who  looks  upon  a  river  in  a  meditative  hour,  and 
is  not  reminded  of  the  flux  of  all  things  ?  Throw  a 
stone  into  the  stream,  and  the  circles  that  propagate 
themselves  are  the  beautiful  type  of  all  influence. 
Man  is  conscious  of  a  universal  soul  within  or  be 
hind  his  individual  life,  wherein,  as  in  a  firmament, 
the  natures  of  Justice,  Truth,  Love,  Freedom,  arise 
and  shine. 

LANGUAGE 

AUGUST  SEVENTH 

The  pleasure  of  life  is  according  to  the  man  that 
lives  it,  and  not  according  to  the  work  or  the  place. 
Life  is  an  ecstasy. 

FATE 


AUGUST  EIGHTH 

If  your  eye  is  on  the  eternal,  your  intellect  will 
grow,  and  your  opinions  and  actions  will  have  a 
beauty  which  no  learning  or  combined  advantages 
of  other  men  can  rival.  The  moment  of  your  loss 
of  faith,  and  acceptance  of  the  lucrative  standard, 
will  be  marked  in  the  pause,  or  solstice  of  genius, 
the  sequent  retrogression,  and  the  inevitable  loss  of 
attraction  to  other  minds. 

WORSHIP 

AUGUST  NINTH 

No  land  is  bad,  but  land  is  worse.  If  a  man  own 
land,  the  land  owns  him.  Now  let  him  leave  home, 
if  he  dare.  Every  tree  and  graft,  every  hill  of  me 
lons,  row  of  corn,  or  quickset  hedge,  all  he  has  done, 
and  all  he  means  to  do,  stand  in  his  way,  like  duns, 
when  he  would  go  out  of  his  gate. 


WEALTH 


AUGUST  TENTH 

The  fiend  that  man  harries, 
Is  love  of  the  best ; 
Yawns  the  Pit  of  the  Dragon 
Lit  by  rays  from  the  Blest. 
The  Lethe  of  Nature 
Can't  trance  him  again, 
Whose  soul  sees  the  Perfect, 
Which  his  eyes  seek  in  vain. 

[  73  ] 


THE  SPHYNX 


AUGUST  ELEVENTH 

What  is  Love,  and  why  is  it  the  chief  good,  but  be 
cause  it  is  an  overpowering  enthusiasm  ?  Never  self- 
possessed  or  prudent,  it  is  all  abandonment. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

AUGUST  TWELFTH 

If  a  man  should  send  to  me  to  come  a  hundred 
miles  to  visit  him,  and  should  set  before  me  a  bas 
ket  of  fine  summer-fruit,  I  should  think  there  was 
some  proportion  between  the  labor  and  the  reward. 

GIFTS 

AUGUST  THIRTEENTH 

Your  goodness  must  have  some  edge  to  it, — else  it 
is  none.  The  dodlrine  of  hatred  must  be  preached, 
as  the  counteraction  of  the  dodtrine  of  love,  when 
that  pules  and  whines. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

AUGUST  FOURTEENTH 

Our  age  and  history,  for  these  thousand  years,  has 
not  been  the  history  of  kindness,  but  of  selfishness. 
Our  distrust  is  very  expensive.  The  money  we 
spend  for  courts  and  prisons  is  very  ill  laid  out.  We 
make,  by  distrust,  the  thief,  and  burglar,  and  in 
cendiary,  and  by  our  court  and  jail  we  keep  him  so. 
An  acceptance  of  the  sentiment  of  love  throughout 
Christendom  for  a  season  would  bring  the  felon  and 
the  outcast  to  our  side  in  tears,  with  the  devotion 
of  his  faculties  to  our  service. 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

[74] 


AUGUST  FIFTEENTH 

Some  thoughts  always  find  us  young,  and  keep  us  so. 
Such  a  thought  is  the  love  of  the  universal  and  eter 
nal  beauty.  Every  man  parts  from  that  contempla 
tion  with  the  feeling  that  it  rather  belongs  to  ages 
than  to  mortal  life. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

AUGUST  SIXTEENTH 

Give  all  to  love  ; 
Obey  thy  heart; 
Friends,  kindred,  days, 
Estate,  good  fame, 
Plans,  credit,  and  the  muse ; 
Nothing  refuse. 

GIVE  ALL  TO  LOVE 

AUGUST  SEVENTEENTH 

Every  man  supposes  himself  not  to  be  fully  under 
stood  ;  and  if  there  is  any  truth  in  him,  if  he  rests 
at  last  on  the  divine  soul,  I  see  not  how  it  can  be 
otherwise.  The  last  chamber,  the  last  closet,  he 
must  feel  was  never  opened ;  there  is  always  a  re 
siduum  unknown,  unanalyzable.  That  is,  every 
man  believes  that  he  has  a  greater  possibility. 

CIRCLES 

AUGUST  EIGHTEENTH 

Every  spirit  makes  its  house ;  but  afterwards  the 
house  confines  the  spirit. 

FATE 

[75] 


AUGUST  NINETEENTH 

Though  the  uninspired  man  certainly  finds  persons 
a  conveniency  in  household  matters,  the  divine  man 
does  not  respect  them :  he  sees  them  as  a  rack  of 
clouds,  or  a  fleet  of  ripples  which  the  wind  drives 
over  the  surface  of  the  water. 

NOMINALIST  AND   REALIST 

AUGUST  TWENTIETH 

You  cannot  hide  any  secret.  If  the  artist  succor  his 
flagging  spirits  by  opium  or  wine,  his  work  will 
characterize  itself  as  the  effect  of  opium  or  wine. 
If  you  make  a  picture  or  a  statue,  it  sets  the  be 
holder  in  that  state  of  mind  you  had,  when  you  made 
it.  If  you  spend  for  show,  on  building,  or  garden 
ing,  or  on  pictures,  or  on  equipages,  it  will  so  ap 
pear.  We  are  all  physiognomists  and  penetrators  of 
character,  and  things  themselves  are  detective. 

WORSHIP 

AUGUST  TWENTY-FIRST 

The  aspect  of  Nature  is  devout.  Like  the  figure  of 
Jesus,  she  stands  with  bended  head  and  hands  folded 
upon  the  breast.  The  happiest  man  is  he  who  learns 
from  Nature  the  lesson  of  worship. 

SPIRIT 

AUGUST  TWENTY-SECOND 

Every  man  who  would  do  anything  well  must  come 
to  it  from  a  higher  ground.  A  philosopher  must  be 
more  than  a  philosopher. 

PLATO;  OR,  THE  PHILOSOPHER 

[76] 


AUGUST  TWENTY-THIRD 

You  are  preparing  with  eagerness  to  go  and  render 
a  service  to  which  your  talent  and  your  taste  invite 
you,  the  love  of  men  and  the  hope  of  fame.  Has  it 
not  occurred  to  you  that  you  have  no  right  to  go, 
unless  you  are  equally  willing  to  be  prevented  from 


going  ? 


THE  OVER^SOUL 


AUGUST  TWENTY-FOURTH 

First  one,  then  another,  we  drain  all  cisterns,  and, 
waxing  greater  by  all  these  supplies,  we  crave  a  bet 
ter  and  more  abundant  food.  The  man  has  never 
lived  that  can  feed  us  ever. 

THE  AMERICAN  SCHOLAR 

AUGUST  TWENTY-FIFTH 

There  is  a  principle  which  is  the  basis  of  things, 
which  all  speech  aims  to  say,  and  all  action  to 
evolve,  a  simple,  quiet,  undescribed,  undescribable 
presence,  dwelling  very  peacefully  in  us,  our  rightful 
lord:  we  are  not  to  do,  but  to  let  do ;  not  to  work, 
but  to  be  worked  upon ;  and  to  this  homage  there 
is  a  consent  of  all  thoughtful  and  just  men  in  all 
ages  and  conditions. 

WORSHIP 

AUGUST  TWENTY-SIXTH 

That  you  are  fair  or  wise  is  vain, 
Or  strong,  or  rich,  or  generous ; 
You  must  have  also  the  untaught  strain 
That  sheds  beauty  on  the  rose. 

FATE 

[  77  ] 


AUGUST  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

As  the  granite  comes  to  the  surface,  and  towers  into 
the  highest  mountains,  and,  if  we  dig  down,  we  find 
it  below  the  superficial  strata,  so  in  all  the  details 
of  our  domestic  or  civil  life  is  hidden  the  elemental 
reality  which  ever  and  anon  comes  to  the  surface 
and  forms  the  grand  men  who  are  the  leaders  and 
examples,  rather  than  the  companions,  of  the  race. 

LECTURE  ON  THE  TIMES 

AUGUST  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

If  a  man  dissemble,  deceive,  he  deceives  himself,  and 
goes  out  of  acquaintance  with  his  own  being.  A  man 
in  the  view  of  absolute  goodness  adores  with  total 
humility.  Every  step  so  downward  is  a  step  upward. 
The  man  who  renounces  himself  comes  to  himself. 

AN  ADDRESS 

AUGUST  TWENTY-NINTH 

The  beautiful  laws  of  time  and  space,  once  dislo 
cated  by  our  inaptitude,  are  holes  and  dens.  If  the 
hive  be  disturbed  by  rash  and  stupid  hands,  instead 
of  honey  it  will  yield  us  bees.  Our  words  and  ac 
tions  to  be  fair  must  be  timely. 

PRUDENCE 

AUGUST  THIRTIETH 

Nothing  is  beneath  you,  if  it  is  in  the  direction  of 
your  life :  nothing  is  great  or  desirable,  if  it  is  off 
from  that.  I  think  we  are  entitled  to  draw  here  a 
straight  line,  and  say,  that  society  can  never  pros- 

[  78  ] 


per,  but  must  always  be  bankrupt,  until  every  man 
does  that  which  he  was  created  to  do. 


WEALTH 


AUGUST  THIRTY-FIRST 

For  nature  beats  in  perfect  tune, 

And  rounds  with  rhyme  her  every  rune, 

Whether  she  work  in  land  or  sea, 

Or  hide  underground  her  alchemy. 

Thou  canst  not  wave  thy  staff  in  air, 

Or  dip  thy  paddle  in  the  lake, 

But  it  carves  the  bow  of  beauty  there, 

And  the  ripples  in  rhymes  the  oar  forsake. 


WOOD   NOTES 


[79] 


SEPTEMBER 

SEPTEMBER  FIRST 

MAKE  yourself  necessary  to  the  world,  and 
mankind  will  give  you  bread,  and  if  not 
store  of  it,  yet  such  as  shall  not  take  away  your  pro 
perty  in  all  men's  possessions,  in  all  men's  affec 
tions,  in  art,  in  nature,  and  in  hope. 

LITERARY  ETHICS 

SEPTEMBER  SECOND 

I  settle  myself  ever  the  firmer  in  the  creed,  that  we 
should  not  postpone  and  refer  and  wish,  but  do 
broad  justice  where  we  are,  by  whomsoever  we  deal 
with,  accepting  our  a6lual  companions  and  circum 
stances,  however  humble  or  odious,  as  the  mystic 
officials  to  whom  the  universe  has  delegated  its 
whole  pleasure  for  us. 

EXPERIENCE 

SEPTEMBER  THIRD 

Use  what  language  you  will,  you  can  never  say 
anything  but  what  you  are.  What  I  am,  and  what 
I  think,  is  conveyed  to  you,  in  spite  of  my  efforts 
to  hold  it  back. 

WORSHIP 


[8. 


SEPTEMBER  FOURTH 

Do  not  cumber  yourself  with  fruitless  pains  to 
mend  and  remedy  remote  effefts ;  let  the  soul  be 
erecl:,  and  all  things  will  go  well. 

THE  TRANSCENDENTALIST 

SEPTEMBER  FIFTH 

Think  me  not  unkind  and  rude, 
That  I  walk  alone  in  grove  and  glen ; 
I  go  to  the  god  of  the  wood 
To  fetch  his  word  to  men. 

THE  APOLOGY 

SEPTEMBER  SIXTH 

Very  idle  is  all  curiosity  concerning  other  peoples' 
estimate  of  us,  and  idle  is  all  fear  of  remaining  un 
known.  If  a  man  know  that  he  can  do  anything, 
—  that  he  can  do  it  better  than  any  one  else,  —  he 
has  a  pledge  of  the  acknowledgment  of  that  facl  by 
all  persons.  The  world  is  full  of  judgment-days,  and 
into  every  assembly  that  a  man  enters,  in  every  ac 
tion  he  attempts,  he  is  guaged  and  stamped. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

SEPTEMBER  SEVENTH 

Honor  him  whose  life  is  perpetual  victory ;  him, 
who,  by  sympathy  with  the  invisible  and  real,  finds 
support  in  labor,  instead  of  praise ;  who  does  not 

shine,  and  would  rather  not. 

WORSHIP 

[8z] 


SEPTEMBER  EIGHTH 

You  shall  get  your  lesson  out  of  the  hour,  and  the  ob 
ject,  whether  it  be  a  concentrated  or  a  wasteful  em 
ployment,  even  in  reading  a  dull  book,  or  working 
offa  stint  of  mechanical  day  labor,  which  your  ne 
cessities  or  the  necessities  of  others  impose. 

LITERARY  ETHICS 

SEPTEMBER  NINTH 

To  believe  your  own  thought,  to  believe  that  what 
is  true  for  you  in  your  private  heart  is  true  for  all 
men, — that  is  genius.  Speak  your  latent  conviction, 
and  it  shall  be  the  universal  sense. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

SEPTEMBER  TENTH 

The  one  prudence  in  life  is  concentration  ;  the  one 
evil  is  dissipation:  and  it  makes  no  difference  whe 
ther  our  dissipations  are  coarse  or  fine ;  property 
and  its  cares,  friends,  and  a  social  habit,  or  politics, 
or  music,  or  feasting.  Everything  is  good  which 
takes  away  one  plaything  and  delusion  more,  and 
drives  us  home  to  add  one  stroke  of  faithful  work. 


POWER 


SEPTEMBER  ELEVENTH 

Yet  shine  forever  virgin  minds, 
Loved  by  stars  and  purest  winds, 
Which,  o'er  passion  throned  sedate, 
Have  not  hazarded  their  state, 


Disconcert  the  searching  spy, 

Rendering  to  a  curious  eye 

The  durance  of  a  granite  ledge 

To  those  who  gaze  from  the  sea's  edge. 


ASTR^EA 


SEPTEMBER  TWELFTH 

Nature  magically  suits  the  man  to  his  fortunes,  by 
making  these  the  fruit  of  his  character.  Ducks  take 
to  the  water,  eagles  to  the  sky,  .  .  .  clerks  to  count 
ing  rooms,  soldiers  to  the  frontier. 

FATE 

SEPTEMBER  THIRTEENTH 

Wherever  there  is  failure,  there  is  some  giddiness, 
some  superstition  about  luck,  some  step  omitted, 
which  Nature  never  pardons.  The  happy  condi 
tions  of  life  may  be  had  on  the  same  terms.  Their 
attraction  for  you  is  the  pledge  that  they  are  within 
your  reach.  Our  prayers  are  prophets. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

SEPTEMBER  FOURTEENTH 

I  ought  not  to  allow  any  man,  because  he  has  broad 
lands,  to  feel  that  he  is  rich  in  my  presence.  I  ought 
to  make  him  feel  that  I  can  do  without  his  riches, 
that  I  cannot  be  bought, — neither  by  comfort,  nei 
ther  by  pride, — and  though  I  be  utterly  penniless, 
and  receiving  bread  from  him,  that  he  is  the  poor 
man  beside  me. 

MAN  THE   REFORMER 

[84] 


SEPTEMBER  FIFTEENTH 

There  are  days  which  occur  in  this  climate,  at  al 
most  any  season  of  the  year,  wherein  the  world 
reaches  its  perfection,  when  the  air,  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  the  earth,  make  a  harmony,  as  if  nature 
would  indulge  her  offspring ;  when,  in  these  bleak 
upper  sides  of  the  planet,  nothing  is  to  desire  that 
we  have  heard  of  the  happiest  latitudes,  and  we  bask 
in  the  shining  hours  of  Florida  and  Cuba. 

NATURE 

SEPTEMBER  SIXTEENTH 

There  need  no  vows  to  bind 
Whom  not  each  other  seek  but  find. 
They  give  and  take  no  pledge  or  oath, 
Nature  is  the  bond  of  both. 

CELESTIAL  LOVE 

SEPTEMBER  SEVENTEENTH 

Be  a  gift  and  a  benediction.  Shine  with  real  light 
and  not  with  the  borrowed  reflection  of  gifts.  Com 
mon  men  are  apologies  for  men;  they  bow  the  head, 
they  excuse  themselves  with  prolix  reasons,  they 
accumulate  appearances  because  the  substance  is 
not. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

SEPTEMBER  EIGHTEENTH 

Wisdom  will  never  let  us  stand  with  any  man  or 
men  on  an  unfriendly  footing.  We  refuse  sympathy 
and  intimacy  with  people,  as  if  we  waited  for  some 

[85] 


better  sympathy  and  intimacy  to  come.  But  whence 
and  when  ?  To-morrow  will  be  like  to-day.  Life 
wastes  itself  whilst  we  are  preparing  to  live. 


PRUDENCE 

SEPTEMBER  NINETEENTH 

It  never  troubles  the  sun  that  some  of  his  rays  fall 
wide  and  vain  into  ungrateful  space,  and  only  a 
small  part  on  the  reflecting  planet.  Let  your  great 
ness  educate  the  crude  and  cold  companion.  If  he 
is  unequal  he  will  presently  pass  away ;  but  thou 
art  enlarged  by  thy  own  shining,  and  no  longer  a 
mate  for  frogs  and  worms,  dost  soar  and  burn  with 
the  gods  of  the  empyrean. 

FRIENDSHIP 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTIETH 

We  spend  our  incomes  for  paint  and  paper,  for  a 
hundred  trifles,  I  know  not  what,  and  not  for  the 
things  of  a  man.  Our  expense  is  almost  all  for  con 
formity.  It  is  for  cake  that  we  run  in  debt ;  't  is  not 
the  intellect,  not  the  heart,  not  beauty,  not  worship, 
that  costs  so  much. 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-FIRST 
Oft  in  streets  or  humbler  places 
I  dete6l  far  wandered  graces, 
Which  from  Eden  wide  astray 
In  lowly  homes  have  lost  their  way. 

ODE  TO  BEAUTY 

[  86] 


SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-SECOND 

We  dare  not  trust  our  wit  for  making  our  house 
pleasant  to  our  friend,  and  so  we  buy  ice-creams. 
He  is  accustomed  to  carpets,  and  we  have  not  suffi 
cient  character  to  put  floor-cloths  out  of  his  mind 
whilst  he  stays  in  the  house,  and  so  we  pile  the  floor 
with  carpets.  Let  the  house  rather  be  a  temple  of 
the  Furies  of  Lacedasmon,  formidable  and  holy  to 
all,  which  none  but  a  Spartan  may  enter. 

MAN  THE  REFORMER 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD 

As  to  what  we  call  the  masses  and  common  men — 
there  are  no  common  men.  All  men  are  at  last  of  a 
size  ;  and  true  art  is  only  possible  on  the  conviction 
that  every  talent  has  its  apotheosis  somewhere.  Fair 
play,  and  an  open  field,  and  freshest  laurels  to  all 
who  have  won  them  ! 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-FOURTH 

Let  a  man  believe  in  God,  and  not  in  names  and 
places  and  persons.  Let  the  great  soul  incarnated  in 
some  woman's  form,  poor  and  sad  and  single,  in 
some  Dolly  or  Joan,  go  out  to  service  and  sweep 
chambers  and  scour  floors,  and  its  effulgent  day- 
beams  cannot  be  muffled  or  hid,  but  to  sweep  and 
scour  will  instantly  appear  supreme  and  beautiful 
actions. 

SPIRITUAL   LAWS 

[87] 


SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-FIFTH 

Certain  men  affecl:  us  as  rich  possibilities,  but  help 
less  to  themselves  and  to  their  times,  —  the  sport, 
perhaps,  of  some  instin<5t  that  rules  in  the  air, — 
they  do  not  speak  to  our  want.  But  the  great  are 
near ;  we  know  them  at  sight. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-SIXTH 

It  is  commonly  said  by  farmers,  that  a  good  pear  or 
apple  costs  no  more  time  or  pains  to  rear,  than  a  poor 
one  ;  so  I  would  have  no  work  of  art,  no  speech,  or 
a6lion,  or  thought,  or  friend,  but  the  best. 

NOMINALIST  AND   REALIST 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-SEVENTH 
When  frail  Nature  can  no  more, — 
Then  the  spirit  strikes  the  hour, 
My  servant  Death  with  solving  rite 
Pours  finite  into  infinite. 

THRENODY 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Trust  thyself:  Every  heart  vibrates  to  that  iron 
string.  Accept  the  place  the  divine  providence  has 
found  for  you,  the  society  of  your  contemporaries, 
the  connexion  of  events.  Great  men  have  always 
done  so,  and  confided  themselves  childlike  to  the 
genius  of  their  age,  betraying  their  perception  that 


[88] 


the  Eternal  was  stirring  at  their  heart,  working 
through  their  hands,  predominating  in  all  their  be 
ing. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

SEPTEMBER  TWENTY-NINTH 

A  man  adorns  himself  with  prayer  and  love,  as  an 
aim  adorns  an  action.  What  is  strong  but  goodness, 
and  what  is  energetic  but  the  presence  of  a  brave 
man  ? 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

SEPTEMBER  THIRTIETH 

Not  with  scarfs  or  perfumed  gloves 
Do  these  celebrate  their  loves, 
Not  by  jewels,  feasts,  and  savors, 
Not  by  ribbons  or  by  favors, 
But  by  the  sun-spark  on  the  sea, 
And  the  cloud-shadow  on  the  lea, 
The  soothing  lapse  of  morn  to  mirk, 
And  the  cheerful  round  of  work. 
Their  cords  of  love  so  public  are, 
They  intertwine  the  farthest  star. 

CELESTIAL  LOVE 


[89] 


OCTOBER 

OCTOBER  FIRST 

WE  should  meet  each  morning,  as  from  for 
eign  countries,  and  spending  the  day  to 
gether,  should  depart  at  night,  as  into  foreign  coun 
tries.  In  all  things  I  would  have  the  island  of  a  man 
inviolate. 

MANNERS 

OCTOBER  SECOND 

The  power  of  love,  as  the  basis  of  a  State,  has  never 
been  tried.  We  must  not  imagine  that  all  things  are 
lapsing  into  confusion,  if  every  tender  protestant  be 
not  compelled  to  bear  his  part  in  certain  social  con 
ventions  :  nor  doubt  that  roads  can  be  built,  letters 
carried,  and  the  fruit  of  labor  secured,  when  the 
government  of  force  is  at  an  end. 

POLITICS 

OCTOBER  THIRD 

All  things  show  us,  that  on  every  side  we  are  very 
near  to  the  best.  It  seems  not  worth  while  to  exe 
cute  with  too  much  pains  some  one  intellectual,  or 
aesthetical,  or  civil  feat,  when  presently  the  dream 
will  scatter,  and  we  shall  burst  into  universal  power. 

NOMINALIST  AND   REALIST 


OCTOBER  FOURTH 

When  I  have  attempted  to  join  myself  to  others  by 
services,  it  proved  an  intellectual  trick,  —  no  more. 
They  eat  your  service  like  apples,  and  leave  you 
out.  But  love  them,  and  they  feel  you,  and  delight  in 
you  all  the  time. 

GIFTS 

OCTOBER  FIFTH 

Why  need  I  volumes,  if  one  word  suffice  ? 
Why  need  I  galleries,  when  a  pupil's  draught 
After  the  master's  sketch,  fills  and  o'erfills 
My  apprehension  ? 

THE  DAY'S  RATION 

OCTOBER  SIXTH 

My  gentleman  gives  the  law  where  he  is ;  he  will 
outpray  saints  in  chapel,  outgeneral  veterans  in  the 
field,  and  outshine  all  courtesy  in  the  hall.  He  is 
good  company  for  pirates,  and  good  with  academi 
cians  ;  so  that  it  is  useless  to  fortify  yourself  against 
him  ;  he  has  the  private  entrance  to  all  minds,  and 
I  could  as  easily  exclude  myself,  as  him. 

MANNERS 

OCTOBER  SEVENTH 

I  do  not  wish  to  expiate,  but  to  live.  My  life  is  not 
an  apology,  but  a  life.  It  is  for  itself  and  not  for  a 
spectacle.  I  much  prefer  that  it  should  be  of  a  lower 
strain,  so  it  be  genuine  and  equal,  than  that  it  should 
be  glittering  and  unsteady.  I  wish  it  to  be  sound 
and  sweet,  and  not  to  need  diet  and  bleeding. 

["    Q2    "I  SELF-RELIANCE 


OCTOBER  EIGHTH 

Personal  force  never  goes  out  of  fashion.  That  is 
still  paramount  to-day,  and,  in  the  moving  crowd 
of  good  society,  the  men  of  valor  and  reality  are 
known,  and  rise  to  their  natural  place. 

MANNERS 

OCTOBER  NINTH 

The  union  of  all  minds  appears  intimate ;  what  gets 
admission  to  one  cannot  be  kept  out  of  any  other; 
the  smallest  acquisition  of  truth  or  of  energy,  in  any 
quarter,  is  so  much  good  to  the  commonwealth  of 
souls. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

OCTOBER  TENTH 

For  he  that  feeds  men,  serveth  few, 
He  serves  all,  who  dares  be  true. 

CELESTIAL  LOVE 

OCTOBER  ELEVENTH 

He  is  great,  whose  eyes  are  opened  to  see  that  the 
reward  of  actions  cannot  be  escaped,  because  he  is 
transformed  into  his  action,  and  taketh  its  nature, 
which  bears  its  own  fruit,  like  every  other  tree.  A 
great  man  cannot  be  hindered  of  the  effects  of  his 
act,  because  it  is  immediate. 

WORSHIP 

OCTOBER  TWELFTH 

The  key  to  the  age  may  be  this,  or  that,  or  the  other, 
as  the  young  orators  describe ; — the  key  to  all  ages 
is — Imbecility.  .  . .  This  gives  force  to  the  strong, 
that  the  multitude  have  no  habit  of  self-reliance  or 
original  action. 

[  93  ]  POWER 


OCTOBER  THIRTEENTH 

All  things 

Are  of  one  pattern  made ;  bird,  beast,  and  plant, 
Song,  picture,  form,  space,  thought,  and  character, 
Deceive  us,  seeming  to  be  many  things, 
And  are  but  one. 

XENOPHANES 

OCTOBER  FOURTEENTH 

A  man  in  pursuit  of  greatness  feels  no  little  wants. 
How  can  you  mind  diet,  bed,  dress,  or  salutes  or 
compliments,  or  the  figure  you  make  in  company, 
or  wealth,  or  even  the  bringing  things  to  pass, 
when  you  think  how  paltry  are  the  machinery  and 

the  workers? 

CULTURE 

OCTOBER  FIFTEENTH 

In  one  of  those  celestial  days,  when  heaven  and 
earth  meet  and  adorn  each  other,  it  seems  a  poverty 
that  we  can  only  spend  it  once  :  we  wish  for  a  thou 
sand  heads,  a  thousand  bodies,  that  we  might  cele 
brate  its  immense  beauty  in  many  ways  and  places. 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

OCTOBER  SIXTEENTH 

The  civility  of  no  race  can  be  perfect  whilst  an 
other  race  is  degraded.  It  is  a  doctrine  alike  of  the 
oldest  and  of  the  newest  philosophy,  that  man  is  one, 
and  that  you  cannot  injure  any  member  without 
a  sympathetic  injury  to  all  the  members.  America 
is  not  civil,  whilst  Africa  is  barbarous. 

EMANCIPATION  ADDRESS 

[94] 


OCTOBER  SEVENTEENTH 

The  world  must  be  just.  It  always  leaves  every  man, 
with  profound  unconcern,  to  set  his  own  rate.  Hero 
or  driveller,  it  meddles  not  in  the  matter.  It  will 
certainly  accept  your  own  measure  of  your  doing 
and  being,  whether  you  sneak  about  and  deny  your 
own  name,  or  whether  you  see  your  work  produced 
to  the  concave  sphere  of  the  heavens,  one  with  the 
revolution  of  the  stars. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

OCTOBER  EIGHTEENTH 

The  moral  law  lies  at  the  centre  of  nature  and  ra 
diates  to  the  circumference.  It  is  the  pith  and  mar 
row  of  every  substance,  every  relation,  and  every 
process.  All  things  v  ith  which  we  deal,  preach  to 
us.  What  is  a  farm  but  a  mute  gospel  ?  The  chaff 
and  the  wheat,  weeds  and  plants,  blight,  rain,  in- 
secTs,  sun,  —  it  is  a  sacred  emblem  from  the  first  fur 
row  of  spring  to  the  last  stack  which  the  snow  of 
winter  overtakes  in  the  field. 

DISCIPLINE 

OCTOBER  NINETEENTH 
For  nature  ever  faithful  is 
To  such  as  trust  her  faithfulness. 
When  the  forest  shall  mislead  me, 
When  the  night  and  morning  lie, 
When  sea  and  land  refuse  to  feed  me, 
'T  will  be  time  enough  to  die. 

WOOD   NOTES 

[95  ] 


OCTOBER  TWENTIETH 

I  pray  my  companion,  if  he  wishes  for  bread,  to  ask 
me  for  bread,  and  if  he  wishes  for  sassafras  or  arsenic, 
to  ask  me  for  them,  and  not  to  hold  out  his  plate, 
as  if  I  knew  already.  Every  natural  function  can  be 
dignified  by  deliberation  and  privacy.  Let  us  leave 
hurry  to  slaves. 

MANNERS 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-FIRST 

Massachusetts,  Connecticut  River  and  Boston  Bay 
you  think  paltry  places,  and  the  ear  loves  names  of 
foreign  and  classic  topography.  But  here  we  are :  — 
that  is  a  great  fadl,  and,  if  we  tarry  a  little,  we  may 
come  to  learn  that  here  is  best.  See  to  it  only  that 
thyself  is  here, — and  art  and  nature,  hope  and 
dread,  friends,  angels  and  the  Supreme  Being  shall 
not  be  absent  from  the  chamber  where  thou  sittest. 

HEROISM 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-SECOND 

There  are  many  eyes  that  can  detecl  and  honor  the 
prudent  and  household  virtues ;  there  are  many  that 
can  discern  Genius  on  his  starry  track,  though  the 
mob  is  incapable ;  but  when  that  love  which  is 
all-suffering,  all-abstaining,  all-aspiring,  which  has 
vowed  to  itself,  that  it  will  be  a  wretch  and  also  a 
fool  in  this  world,  sooner  than  soil  its  white  hands  by 
any  compliances,  comes  into  our  streets  and  houses, 
— only  the  pure  and  aspiring  can  know  its  face,  and 
the  only  compliment  they  can  pay  it,  is  to  own  it. 

[    96    ]  CHARACTER 


OCTOBER  TWENTY-THIRD 

He  is  the  rich  man  in  whom  the  people  are  rich, 
and  he  is  the  poor  man  in  whom  the  people  are 
poor:  and  how  to  give  all  access  to  the  masterpieces 
of  art  and  nature,  is  the  problem  of  civilization. 

WEALTH 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-FOURTH 

To  a  man  at  work,  the  frost  is  but  a  color:  the  rain, 
the  wind,  he  forgot  them  when  he  came  in.  Let  us 
learn  to  live  coarsely,  dress  plainly,  and  lie  hard. 
The  least  habit  of  dominion  over  the  palate  has  cer 
tain  good  effects  not  easily  estimated.  Neither  will 
we  be  driven  into  a  quiddling  abstemiousness.  JT  is 
a  superstition  to  insist  on  a  special  diet.  All  is  made 
at  last  of  the  same  chemical  atoms. 

CULTURE 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-FIFTH 

Light  is  light  which  radiates, 
Blood  is  blood  which  circulates, 
Life  is  life  which  generates, 
And  many-seeming  life  is  one. 

THRENODY 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-SIXTH 

There  is  always  room  for  the  man  of  force.  ...  A 
feeble  man  can  see  the  farms  that  are  fenced  and 
tilled,  the  houses  that  are  built.  The  strong  man 
sees  the  possible  houses  and  farms.  His  eye  makes 
estates,  as  fast  as  the  sun  breeds  clouds. 

POWER 

[97] 


OCTOBER  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

I  look  upon  the  simple  and  childish  virtues  of  ve 
racity  and  honesty  as  the  root  of  all  that  is  sublime 
in  character.  Speak  as  you  think,  be  what  you  are, 
pay  your  debts  of  all  kinds.  I  prefer  to  be  owned 
as  sound  and  solvent,  and  my  word  as  good  as  my 
bond,  and  to  be  what  cannot  be  skipped,  or  dissi 
pated,  or  undermined,  to  all  the  £clat  in  the  uni 
verse. 

ILLUSIONS 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Idealism  sees  the  world  in  God.  It  beholds  the 
whole  circle  of  persons  and  things,  of  actions  and 
events,  of  country  and  religion,  not  as  painfully  ac 
cumulated,  atom  after  atom,  aft  after  act,  in  an  aged 
creeping  Past,  but  as  one  vast  picture  which  God 
paints  on  the  instant  eternity  for  the  contemplation 
of  the  soul. 

IDEALISM 

OCTOBER  TWENTY-NINTH 

Why  should  I  roam, 
Who  cannot  circumnavigate  the  sea 
Of  thoughts  and  things  at  home,  but  still  adjourn 
The  nearest  matters  to  another  moon  ? 
Why  see  new  men,  who  have  not  understood  the 
old? 

THE   DAY'S   RATION 


[98  ] 


OCTOBER  THIRTIETH 

Let  him  be  great,  and  love  shall  follow  him.  No 
thing  is  more  deeply  punished  than  the  negledl 
of  the  affinities  by  which  alone  society  should  be 
formed,  and  the  insane  levity  of  choosing  associates 
by  others'  eyes. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

OCTOBER  THIRTY-FIRST 

Society  everywhere  is  in  conspiracy  against  the 
manhood  of  every  one  of  its  members.  Society  is  a 
joint-stock  company,  in  which  the  members  agree, 
for  the  better  securing  of  his  bread  to  each  share 
holder,  to  surrender  the  liberty  and  culture  of  the 
eater.  The  virtue  in  most  request  is  conformity. 

SELF-RELIANCE 


[99] 


NOVEMBER 

NOVEMBER  FIRST 

DO  what  you  know,  and  perception  is  con 
verted  into  character,  as  islands  and  conti 
nents  were  built  by  invisible  infusories,  or  as  these 
forest  leaves  absorb  light,  electricity,  and  volatile 
gases,  and  the  gnarled  oak  to  live  a  thousand  years 
is  the  arrest  and  fixation  of  the  most  volatile  and 
ethereal  currents. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

NOVEMBER  SECOND 

Silent  rushes  the  swift  Lord 
Through  ruined  systems  still  restored, 
Broad-sowing,  bleak  and  void  to  bless, 
Plants  with  worlds  the  wilderness, 
Waters  with  tears  of  ancient  sorrow 
Apples  of  Eden  ripe  to-morrow. 

THRENODY 

NOVEMBER  THIRD 

The  moment  we  indulge  our  affections,  the  earth 
is  metamorphosed:  there  is  no  winter  and  no  night : 
all  tragedies,  all  ennuis  vanish,  —  all  duties  even ; 
nothing  fills  the  proceeding  eternity  but  the  forms 
all  radiant  of  beloved  persons.  Let  the  soul  be  as 
sured  that  somewhere  in  the  universe  it  should  re 
join  its  friend,  and  it  would  be  content  and  cheerful 
alone  for  a  thousand  years. 

["    IOI    1  FRIENDSHIP 


NOVEMBER  FOURTH 

The  heroic  soul  does  not  sell  its  justice  and  its 
nobleness.  It  does  not  ask  to  dine  nicely  and  to  sleep 
warm.  The  essence  of  greatness  is  the  perception 
that  virtue  is  enough.  Poverty  is  its  ornament. 
Plenty  does  not  need  it,  and  can  very  well  abide  its 
loss. 

HEROISM 

NOVEMBER  FIFTH 

The  inevitable  morning 
Finds  them  who  in  cellars  be, 
And  be  sure  the  all-loving  Nature 
Will  smile  in  a  factory. 

THE  WORLD-SOUL 

NOVEMBER  SIXTH 

We  cannot  part  with  our  friends.  We  cannot  let 
our  angels  go.  We  do  not  see  that  they  only  go  out 
that  archangels  may  come  in.  We  are  idolaters  of 
the  old.  We  do  not  believe  in  the  riches  of  the  soul, 
in  its  proper  eternity  and  omnipresence. 

COMPENSATION 

NOVEMBER  SEVENTH 

The  last  lesson  of  life,  the  choral  song  which  rises 
from  all  elements  and  all  angels,  is  a  voluntary  obe 
dience,  a  necessitated  freedom.  Man  is  made  of  the 
same  atoms  as  the  world  is,  he  shares  the  same  im 
pressions,  predispositions,  and  destiny.  When  his 
mind  is  illuminated,  when  his  heart  is  kind,  he 
throws  himself  joyfully  into  the  sublime  order, 
and  does,  with  knowledge,  what  the  stones  do  by 
structure. 

f     I O2    1  WORSHIP 


NOVEMBER  EIGHTH 

For  gods  delight  in  gods, 

And  thrust  the  weak  aside $ 

To  him  who  scorns  their  charities, 

Their  arms  fly  open  wide. 

THE  WORLD-SOUL 

NOVEMBER  NINTH 

The  private  poor  man  hath  cities,  ships,  canals, 
bridges,  built  for  him.  He  goes  to  the  post-office,  and 
the  human  race  run  on  his  errands ;  to  the  book 
shop,  and  the  human  race  read  and  write  of  all  that 
happens  for  him ;  to  the  court-house,  and  nations 
repair  his  wrongs.  He  sets  his  house  upon  the  road, 
and  the  human  race  go  forth  every  morning  and 
shovel  out  the  snow,  and  cut  a  path  for  him. 

COMMODITY 

NOVEMBER  TENTH 

The  Greek  battle-pieces  are  calm ;  the  heroes,  in 
whatever  violent  actions  engaged,  retain  a  serene 
aspe6l ;  as  we  say  of  Niagara,  that  it  falls  without 
speed.  A  cheerful,  intelligent  face  is  the  end  of  cul 
ture,  and  success  enough.  For  it  indicates  the  pur 
pose  of  Nature  and  wisdom  attained. 

CULTURE 

NOVEMBER  ELEVENTH 

We  cannot  describe  the  natural  history  of  the  soul, 
but  we  know  that  it  is  divine. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

[  103  ] 


NOVEMBER  TWELFTH 

Good  and  bad  are  but  names  very  readily  transfer 
able  to  that  or  this ;  the  only  right  is  what  is  after 
my  constitution ;  the  only  wrong  what  is  against 
it.  A  man  is  to  carry  himself  in  the  presence  of  all 
opposition  as  if  every  thing  were  titular  and  ephe 
meral  but  he. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

NOVEMBER  THIRTEENTH 
One  thing  is  forever  good, 
That  one  thing  is  success, — 
Dear  to  the  Eumenides, 
And  to  all  the  heavenly  brood. 
Who  bides  at  home,  nor  looks  abroad, 
Carries  the  eagles,  and  masters  the  sword. 

FATE 

NOVEMBER  FOURTEENTH 

The  time  is  coming  when  all  men  will  see  that  the 
gift  of  God  to  the  soul  is  not  a  vaunting,  over 
powering,  excluding  sanftity,  but  a  sweet,  natural 
goodness,  a  goodness  like  thine  and  mine,  and  that 
so  invites  thine  and  mine  to  be  and  to  grow. 

AN  ADDRESS 

NOVEMBER  FIFTEENTH 

A  man  cannot  utter  two  or  three  sentences,without 
disclosing  to  intelligent  ears  precisely  where  he 
stands  in  life  and  thought,  namely,  whether  in  the 
kingdom  of  the  senses  and  the  understanding,  or  in 

[   104  ] 


that  of  ideas  and  imagination,  in  the  realm  of  in 
tuitions  and  duty.  People  seem  not  to  see  that  their 
opinion  of  the  world  is  also  a  confession  of  character. 

WORSHIP 

NOVEMBER  SIXTEENTH 

Who  liveth  by  the  ragged  pine, 
Foundeth  a  heroic  line ; 
Who  liveth  in  the  palace  hall, 

Waneth  fast  and  spendeth  all. 

WOOD  NOTES 

NOVEMBER  SEVENTEENTH 

There  are  more  belongings  to  every  creature  than 
his  air  and  his  food.  His  instindls  must  be  met,  and 
he  has  predisposing  power  that  bends  and  fits  what 
is  near  him  to  his  use.  He  is  not  possible  until 
the  invisible  things  are  right  for  him,  as  well  as  the 

visible. 

FATE 

NOVEMBER  EIGHTEENTH 

God  screens  us  evermore  from  premature  ideas.  Our 
eyes  are  holden  that  we  cannot  see  things  that  stare 
us  in  the  face,  until  the  hour  arrives  when  the  mind 
is  ripened,  —  then  we  behold  them,  and  the  time 
when  we  saw  them  not  is  like  a  dream. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

NOVEMBER  NINETEENTH 

It  is  as  easy  to  be  great  as  to  be  small.  The  reason 
why  we  do  not  at  once  believe  in  admirable  souls 
is  because  they  are  not  in  our  experience. 

PLATO  ;  OR,  THE  PHILOSOPHER 

[  105  ] 


-"V*. 


NOVEMBER  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  self-denial  and  manliness  in 
poor  and  middle-class  houses,  in  town  and  country, 
that  has  not  got  into  literature,  and  never  will,  but 
that  keeps  the  earth  sweet. 


CULTURE 


NOVEMBER  TWENTY-NINTH 
Though  thou  loved  her  as  thyself, 
As  a  self  of  purer  clay, 
Tho'  her  parting  dims  the  day, 
Stealing  grace  from  all  alive, 
Heartily  know, 
When  half-gods  go, 
The  gods  arrive. 

GIVE  ALL  TO  LOVE 

NOVEMBER  THIRTIETH 

Culture  is  the  suggestion  from  certain  best  thoughts, 
that  a  man  has  a  range  of  affinities,  through  which 
he  can  modulate  the  violence  of  any  master-tones 
that  have  a  droning  preponderance  in  his  scale,  and 
succor  him  against  himself.  Culture  redresses  his  ba 
lance,  puts  him  among  his  equals  and  superiors,  re 
vives  the  delicious  sense  of  sympathy,  and  warns 
him  of  the  dangers  of  solitude  and  repulsion. 

CULTURE 


[   '08  ] 


DECEMBER 


DECEMBER  FIRST 

IN  certain  men,  digestion  and  sex  absorb  the  vital 
force,  and  the  stronger  these  are,  the  individual 
is  so  much  weaker.  The  more  of  these  drones  perish, 
the  better  for  the  hive. 

FATE 

DECEMBER  SECOND 

I  look  for  the  hour  when  that  supreme  Beauty 
which  ravished  the  souls  of  those  Eastern  men,  and 
chiefly  of  those  Hebrews,  and  through  their  lips 
spoke  oracles  to  all  time,  shall  speak  in  the  West 
also. 

AN  ADDRESS 

DECEMBER  THIRD 

He  was  the  heart  of  all  the  scene, 
On  him  the  sun  looked  more  serene, 
To  hill  and  cloud  his  face  was  known, 
It  seemed  the  likeness  of  their  own. 
They  knew  by  secret  sympathy 
The  public  child  of  earth  and  sky. 

WOOD   NOTES 


[  I09  ] 


DECEMBER  FOURTH 

We  walk  alone  in  the  world.  Friends  such  as  we 
desire  are  dreams  and  fables.  But  a  sublime  hope 
cheers  ever  the  faithful  heart,  that  elsewhere,  in 
other  regions  of  the  universal  power,  souls  are  now 
acting,  enduring  and  daring,  which  can  love  us  and 
which  we  can  love. 

FRIENDSHIP 

DECEMBER  FIFTH 

The  faith  that  stands  on  authority  is  not  faith.  The 
reliance  on  authority  measures  the  decline  of  reli 
gion,  the  withdrawal  of  the  soul. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

DECEMBER  SIXTH 

The  growth  of  the  intellect:  is  stridlly  analogous  in 
all  individuals.  It  is  larger  reception.  Able  men,  in 
general,  have  good  dispositions  and  a  respecl:  for  jus 
tice  ;  because  an  able  man  is  nothing  else  than  a 
good,  free,  vascular  organization,  whereinto  the  uni 
versal  spirit  freely  flows  ;  so  that  his  fund  of  justice 
is  not  only  vast,  but  infinite. 

LITERARY  ETHICS 

DECEMBER  SEVENTH 

Parched  corn  eaten  to-day  that  I  may  have  roast 
fowl  to  my  dinner  on  Sunday  is  a  baseness ;  but 
parched  corn  and  a  house  with  one  apartment,  that 
I  may  be  free  of  all  perturbations,  that  I  may  be 

[     ,,0] 


serene  and  docile  to  what  the  mind  may  speak,  and 
girt  and  road-ready  for  the  lowest  mission  of  know 
ledge  or  goodwill,  is  frugality  for  gods  and  heroes. 

MAN  THE   REFORMER 

DECEMBER  EIGHTH 
Gold  and  iron  are  good 
To  buy  iron  and  gold ; 
All  earth's  fleece  and  food 
For  their  like  are  sold. 

Nor  kind  nor  coinage  buys 
Aught  above  its  rate. 
Fear,  Craft,  and  Avarice 
Cannot  rear  a  State. 

POLITICS 

DECEMBER  NINTH 

What  your  heart  thinks  great,  is  great.  The  soul's 
emphasis  is  always  right. 

SPIRITUAL  LAWS 

DECEMBER  TENTH 

There  is  a  power  in  love  to  divine  another's  de 
stiny  better  than  that  other  can,  and,  by  heroic  en 
couragements,  hold  him  to  his  task.  What  has  friend 
ship  so  signal  as  its  sublime  attraction  to  whatever 
virtue  is  in  us  ? 

USES  OF  GREAT  MEN 

DECEMBER  ELEVENTH 

We  must  trust  infinitely  to  the  beneficent  necessity 
which  shines  through  all  laws.  Human  nature  ex- 


presses  itself  in  them  as  characteristically  as  in  sta 
tues,  or  songs,  or  railroads,  and  an  abstract  of  the 
codes  of  nations  would  be  a  transcript  of  the  com 
mon  conscience. 

POLITICS 

DECEMBER  TWELFTH 

Insist  on  yourself;  never  imitate.  Your  own  gift 
you  can  present  every  moment  with  the  cumulative 
force  of  a  whole  life's  cultivation;  but  of  the  adopted 
talent  of  another  you  have  only  an  extemporaneous 
half  possession.  That  which  each  can  do  best,  none 
but  his  Maker  can  teach  him. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

DECEMBER  THIRTEENTH 

The  soul  that  ascendeth  to  worship  the  great  God 
is  plain  and  true;  has  no  rose  color;  no  fine  friends; 
no  chivalry;  no  adventures;  does  not  want  admi 
ration;  dwells  in  the  hour  that  now  is,  in  the  earnest 
experience  of  the  common  day,  —  by  reason  of  the 
present  moment  and  the  mere  trifle  having  become 
porous  to  thought  and  bibulous  of  the  sea  of  light. 

THE  OVER-SOUL 

DECEMBER  FOURTEENTH 

A  friend  is  a  person  with  whom  I  may  be  sincere. 
Before  him  I  may  think  aloud.  I  am  arrived  at  last 
in  the  presence  of  a  man  so  real  and  equal  that  I 
may  drop  even  those  most  undermost  garments  of 
dissimulation,  courtesy,  and  second  thought,  which 
men  never  put  off,  and  may  deal  with  him  with  the 
simplicity  and  wholeness  with  which  one  chemical 
atom  meets  another. 

I"   112  "I  FRIENDSHIP 


DECEMBER  FIFTEENTH 

It  makes  no  difference,  in  looking  back  five  years, 
how  you  have  been  dieted  or  dressed;  whether  you 
have  been  lodged  on  the  first  floor  or  the  attic ;  whe 
ther  you  have  had  gardens  and  baths,  good  cattle 
and  horses,  have  been  carried  in  a  neat  equipage, 
or  in  a  ridiculous  truck:  these  things  are  forgotten 
so  quickly,  and  leave  no  effect.  But  it  counts  much 
whether  we  have  had  good  companions,  in  that  time ; 
— almost  as  much  as  what  we  have  been  doing. 

CONSIDERATIONS  BY  THE  WAY 

DECEMBER  SIXTEENTH 

The  horseman  serves  the  horse, 
The  neat-herd  serves  the  neat, 
The  merchant  serves  the  purse, 
The  eater  serves  his  meat ; 
'T  is  the  day  of  the  chattel, 
Web  to  weave,  and  corn  to  grind, 
Things  are  in  the  saddle, 
And  ride  mankind. 

ODE  TO  WILLIAM   H.  CHANNING 

DECEMBER  SEVENTEENTH 

A  beautiful  form  is  better  than  a  beautiful  face ;  a 
beautiful  behavior  is  better  than  a  beautiful  form  : 
it  gives  a  higher  pleasure  than  statues  or  pictures ; 
it  is  the  finest  of  the  fine  arts.  A  man  is  but  a  little 
thing  in  the  midst  of  the  objects  of  nature,  yet,  by 
the  moral  quality  radiating  from  his  countenance, 
he  may  abolish  all  considerations  of  magnitude,  and 
in  his  manners  equal  the  majesty  of  the  world. 

[     113    ]  MANNERS 


DECEMBER  EIGHTEENTH 

A  great  man  illustrates  his  place,  makes  his  climate 
genial  in  the  imagination  of  men,  and  its  air  the 
beloved  element  of  all  delicate  spirits.  That  coun 
try  is  the  fairest  which  is  inhabited  by  the  noblest 
minds. 

HEROISM 

DECEMBER  NINETEENTH 

These  temples  grew  as  grows  the  grass, 

Art  might  obey  but  not  surpass. 

The  passive  Master  lent  his  hand 

To  the  vast  soul  that  o'er  him  planned, 

And  the  same  power  that  reared  the  shrine, 

Bestrode  the  tribes  that  knelt  within. 

Ever  the  fiery  Pentecost 

Girds  with  one  flame  the  countless  host, 

Trances  the  heart  through  chanting  quires, 

And  through  the  priest  the  mind  inspires. 

THE  PROBLEM 

DECEMBER  TWENTIETH 

The  love  of  beauty  is  mainly  the  love  of  measure 
or  proportion.  The  person  who  screams,  or  uses  the 
superlative  degree,  or  converses  with  heat,  puts 
whole  drawing-rooms  to  flight.  If  you  wish  to  be 
loved,  love  measure. 

MANNERS 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-FIRST 

The  compensations  of  calamity  are  made  apparent 
to  the  understanding  also,  after  long  intervals  of 
[  "4] 


time.  A  fever,  a  mutilation,  a  cruel  disappointment, 
a  loss  of  wealth,  a  loss  of  friends,  seems  at  the  mo 
ment  unpaid  loss,  and  unpayable.  But  the  sure  years 
reveal  the  deep  remedial  force  that  underlies  all 
fads. 

COMPENSATION 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-SECOND 

The  soul  can  be  appeased  not  by  a  deed  but  by  a 
tendency.  It  is  in  a  hope  that  she  feels  her  wings. 
You  shall  love  rectitude  and  not  the  disuse  of 
money  or  the  avoidance  of  trade ;  an  unimpeded 
mind,  and  not  a  monkish  diet ;  sympathy  and  use 
fulness,  and  not  hoeing  or  coopering. 

THE  METHOD  OF  NATURE 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-THIRD 

The  art  of  life  has  a  pudency,  and  will  not  be  ex 
posed.  Every  man  is  an  impossibility,  until  he  is 
born;  every  thing  impossible,  until  we  see  a  success. 

EXPERIENCE 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-FOURTH 

A  complete  man  should  need  no  auxiliaries  to  his 
personal  presence.  Whoever  looked  on  him  would 
consent  to  his  will,  being  certified  that  his  aims 
were  generous  and  universal.  The  reason  why  men 
do  not  obey  us,  is  because  they  see  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  of  our  eye. 


BEHAVIOR 


[  "5] 


DECEMBER  TWENTY-FIFTH 

If,  at  any  time,  it  comes  into  my  head,  that  a  pre 
sent  is  due  from  me  to  somebody,  I  am  puzzled  what 
to  give,  until  the  opportunity  is  gone.  Flowers  and 
fruits  are  always  fit  presents ;  flowers,  because  they 
are  a  proud  assertion  that  a  ray  of  beauty  outvalues 

all  the  utilities  of  the  world. 

GIFTS 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-SIXTH 

Whilst  a  man  seeks  good  ends,  he  is  strong  by  the 
whole  strength  of  Nature.  In  so  far  as  he  roams  from 
these  ends,  he  bereaves  himself  of  power,  of  auxil 
iaries  ;  his  being  shrinks  out  of  all  remote  channels, 
he  becomes  less  and  less,  a  mote,  a  point,  until  ab 
solute  badness  is  absolute  death. 

AN   ADDRESS 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-SEVENTH 

The  Eden  of  God  is  bare  and  grand  ;  like  the  out 
door  landscape  remembered  from  the  evening  fire 
side,  it  seems  cold  and  desolate  whilst  you  cower 
over  the  coals ;  but  once  abroad  again,  we  pity  those 
who  can  forego  the  magnificence  of  nature  for 

candle-light  and  cards. 

SWEDENBORG;  OR,  THE  MYSTIC 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-EIGHTH 

Let  us  affront  and  reprimand  the  smooth  medio 
crity  and  squalid  contentment  of  the  times,  and 
hurl  in  the  face  of  custom  and  trade  and  office,  the 
[  "6] 


fact  which  is  the  upshot  of  all  history,  that  there 
is  a  great  responsible  Thinker  and  A6lor  moving 
wherever  moves  a  man;  that  a  true  man  belongs  to 
no  other  time  or  place,  but  is  the  centre  of  all  things. 
Where  he  is,  there  is  nature. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

DECEMBER  TWENTY-NINTH 

I  look  for  the  new  Teacher,  that  shall  follow  so  far 
those  shining  laws,  that  he  shall  see  them  come 
full  circle  ;  shall  see  their  rounding  complete  grace ; 
shall  see  the  world  to  be  the  mirror  of  the  soul ;  shall 
see  the  identity  of  the  law  of  gravitation  with  purity 
of  heart;  and  shall  show  that  the  Ought,  that  Duty, 
is  one  thing  with  Science,  with  Beauty,  and  with 
Joy. 

AN   ADDRESS 

DECEMBER  THIRTIETH 

And  truly  it  demands  something  godlike  in  him 
who  has  cast  off  the  common  motives  of  humanity 
and  has  ventured  to  trust  himself  for  a  task-master. 
High  be  his  heart,  faithful  his  will,  clear  his  sight, 
that  he  may  in  good  earnest  be  doctrine,  society, 
law,  to  himself,  that  a  simple  purpose  may  be  to 
him  as  strong  as  iron  necessity  is  to  others. 

SELF-RELIANCE 

DECEMBER  THIRTY-FIRST 

On  him  the  light  of  star  and  moon 
Shall  fall  with  purer  radiance  down; 

["7] 


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